Prepare the same measures of rice and milk, and in the same way as in the last receipt. Boil the rice very slowly after the milk is added, so that it may become very soft, and not get burned. Break six eggs, the yolks and whites separate; beat the yolks with a large cup of white sugar; and stir them, with salt, and a small bit of butter into the rice and milk. Then return the kettle to the fire two or three minutes, and see that it does not burn. Then put the mixture into a buttered dish, and cut the six whites and two large spoonfuls of fine sugar to a stiff froth. Flavor the froth with lemon, lay it over the pudding in folds like a turban, and set it into the oven long enough to brown the top. Ten minutes will be sufficient.
Ground Rice.
To a teacup of ground rice, allow a quart and a gill of milk, six eggs, a heaping teacup of sugar, a piece of butter the size of a small nut, one teaspoonful of salt, and any spice you prefer. Rose-water and nutmeg are generally considered best. Bake it from three quarters to one hour. The milk should be boiled, and the ground rice wet with a part of it reserved for the purpose. When the milk boils up, stir in the rice; mix it thoroughly with the milk, then let it boil up one or two minutes. When it has become a little thick, take it off, put in the butter and salt, add the eggs and sugar, and last of all, the spice. Bake it in one dish, in a moderately hot oven, an hour. If your family is small, bake it in two dishes, forty minutes. It is quite as good the second day as the first.
Sago.
A pint of milk, a table-spoonful and a half of pearl sago, two eggs, two large spoonfuls of sugar, and half a teaspoon of salt. Wash the sago in warm, but not hot water, twice; then put it with the milk into a pail and set it into a kettle of hot water. Stir it very often, as it swells fast, and will else lie in a compact mass at the bottom. When it has boiled two or three minutes, take the pail from the kettle, add the salt, and the eggs beaten with the sugar. Flavor it with vanilla or a few drops of essence of lemon, put it into a dish, and grate nutmeg over it. Set it immediately into the oven, and bake it about three quarters of an hour. If you make a quart of milk, three eggs answer very well. It should then bake an hour. With this number of eggs, the sago settles a little. To have it equally diffused take five eggs.
Squash, or Pumpkin.
A pint of milk, a large coffee-cup of strained pumpkin or squash, two eggs, three large spoonfuls of sugar, a teaspoonful of butter, a little salt, a small teaspoonful of cinnamon, half as much ginger, and some nutmeg.
To prepare it—first, stir the cinnamon and ginger into the squash, as, if they are added after the milk, they will float dry on the top; add salt, then the eggs beaten with the sugar; boil the milk and melt the butter in it, and add it slowly to the other ingredients, stirring fast meantime. Butter a cold dish with cold butter, and sprinkle the bottom and sides with sifted cracker, pour in the mixture, grate nutmeg over the top and then sprinkle it with pounded cracker, sift white sugar over, and bake it forty minutes.
To make a more economical pudding, use the same measure of milk, squash, sugar, ginger, and cinnamon, with but one egg. Stir a pounded and sifted cracker into the squash, before the boiled milk is added; simply butter a dish in the usual way; omit the nutmeg and also the sugar and cracker on the top.
The receipt for squash pies (see page [71]) is a very nice rule for a pudding; omit the paste, and substitute the cracker crumbs in the dish. Such puddings, when made with a quart of milk, should be baked in two dishes, because if baked in one, the edges become too dry, before the centre is cooked.