A RICHER POTATO PUDDING.
Beat well together fourteen ounces of mashed potatoes, four ounces of butter, four of fine sugar, five eggs, the grated rind of a small lemon, and a slight pinch of salt; add half a glass of brandy, and pour the pudding into a thickly-buttered dish or mould, ornamented with slices of candied orange or; pour a little clarified butter on the top, and then sift plenty of white sugar over it.
Potatoes, 14 oz.; butter, 4 oz.; sugar, 4 oz.; eggs, 5; lemon-rind, 1; little salt; brandy, 1/2 glassful; candied peel, 1-1/2 to 2 oz.: 40 minutes.
Obs.—The potatoes for these receipts should be lightly and carefully mashed, but never pounded in a mortar, as that will convert them into a heavy paste. The better plan is to prepare them by Captain Kater’s receipt (Chapter [XVII.]), when they will fall to powder almost of themselves; or they may be grated while hot through a wire sieve. From a quarter to a half pint of cream is, by many cooks, added always to potato puddings.
A GOOD SPONGE CAKE PUDDING.
Slice into a well-buttered tart-dish three penny sponge biscuits, and place on them a couple of ounces of candied orange or lemon rind cut in strips. Whisk thoroughly six eggs, and stir to them boiling a pint and a quarter of new milk, in which three ounces of sugar have been dissolved; grate in the rind of a small lemon, and when they are somewhat cooled, add half a wineglassful of brandy, while still just warm, pour the mixture to the cakes, and let it remain an hour; then strain an ounce and a half of clarified butter over the top, or strew pounded sugar rather thickly on it, and bake the pudding three quarters of an hour or longer in a gentle oven.
Sponge cakes, 3; candied peel, 2 oz.; eggs, 6; new milk, 1-1/4 pint; sugar, 3 oz.; lemon-rind, 1; brandy, 1/2 glass; butter, 1 oz.; sifted sugar, 1-1/2 oz.: 3/4 hour.
CAKE AND CUSTARD, AND VARIOUS OTHER INEXPENSIVE PUDDINGS.
Even when very dry, the remains of a sponge or a Savoy cake will serve excellently for a pudding, if lightly broken up, or crumbled, and intermixed or not, with a few ratifias or macaroons, which should also be broken up. A custard composed of four eggs to the pint of milk if small, and three if very large and fresh, and not very highly sweetened, should be poured over the cake half an hour at least before it is placed in the oven (which should be slow); and any flavour given to it which may be liked. An economical and clever cook will seldom be at a loss for compounding an inexpensive and good pudding in this way. More or less of the cake can be used as may be convenient. Part of a mould of sweet rice or the remains of a dish of Arocē Docē (see Chapter [XXIII].), and various other preparations may be turned to account in a similar manner; but the custard should be perfectly and equally mingled with whatever other ingredients are used. Macaroni boiled tender in milk, or in milk and water, will make an excellent pudding; and sago stewed very thick, will supply another; the custard may be mixed with this last while it is still just warm. Two ounces well washed, and slowly heated in a pint of liquid, will be tender in from fifteen to twenty minutes. All these puddings will require a gentle oven, and will be ready to serve when they are firm in the centre, and do not stick to a knife when plunged into it.