MOTHER’S RICE PUDDING (1877)
Six Little Cooks (1877)
Elizabeth Stansbury Kirkland
One cup rice, ten cups milk; bake five hours.
"Why, Aunt Jane, that is the shortest receipt I ever saw," said Mabel.
"That's all there is of it," answered her aunt, "except that of course any cook would know that there should be a little salt added—perhaps a teaspoonful. You must wash the rice carefully to get out any specks of dirt in it, put it into a buttered baking-dish with the milk and salt, shut the oven door and forget all about it, if your fire is steady and slow. If the fire is a quick one, the damper has to be turned so as to shut off the heat. In this long, slow process of heating, the watery part of the milk evaporates, and the rich, creamy remainder becomes so Incorporated with the rice, that there is no need of butter or eggs. If you want to make it still better, throw in a cupful of raisins, not stoned, but just carefully picked over, after the pudding has been in about half an hour. You may just stir them up in it; it will do no harm."
"Any sauce with it. Aunt Jane?"
"I don't care for sauce with it myself, but you may make some hard sauce, in case the others should wish for it. It may be made as soon as you have set in the pudding, and then left in the ice-box until dinner-time."
American Food Writing (2007)
ed. Molly O'Neill
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