The Challenge: If They’d Had It… November 2 - November 15
Have you ever looked through a cookbook from another era and been surprised at the modern dishes you find? Have you ever been surprised at just how much they differ from their modern counterparts? Recreate a dish which is still around today, even if it may look a little - or a lot - different!
I've been hankering for rice pudding lately for no particular reason. And Miss Betsy kept talking about Eliza Leslie in her challenges so I decided to try one of the recipes from Directions for Cookery and satisfy my desire to eat rice pudding and use up some of the white rice we had (we usually eat brown rice). It turned out well, despite going through lots of gyrations to figure out what a pint of dry rice is and it was quite delicious, though not nearly as sweet as a modern version of rice pudding. I figured out why when I checked out a modern baked rice pudding recipe (just took the first one Google popped up) and noticed that it calls for about three times as much sugar!
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| A Plain Rice Pudding, Eliza Leslie's receipt. |
The Recipe: A Plain Rice Pudding, Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie, 10th Edition [1840] (but the preface was written in Philadelphia in 1837)
Pick and wash a pint of rice, and boil it soft. Then drain off the water, and let the rice dry and get cold. Afterwards mix it with two ounces of butter, and four ounces of sugar, and stir it into a quart of rich milk. Beat four or five eggs very light, and add them gradually to the mixture. Stir in at the last a table-spoonful of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon. Bake it an hour in a deep dish.
The Date/Year and Region: Recipe is English, published 1840 in the USA.
How Did You Make It: I followed the recipe except where I accidentally screwed up. I determined that one pint of rice is 2 cups dry. I chose to soak the rice first to minimize arsenic exposure. And some of her other recipes talk about soaking and draining the rice so I thought that was ok. I think that she also thought that I would be hulling the rice, but since I buy mine in a modern(ish) market, it comes pre-hulled. I boiled the rice and it was really mushy rice (I assume from presoaking it). I left that out overnight, kind of accidentally....but I figured that wouldn't kill anyone and it would be baked the next morning. I cut the butter into smaller pieces and smushed it around in the sugar then stirred that all in the rice. Honestly, I didn't think it was going to work because the butter wasn't all that soft but it worked just fine. Next I poured a quart of milk into the rice mixture, then beat 4 eggs in the baking dish. I beat the cinnamon/nutmeg mixture into the eggs (didn't read the directions super carefully) but I think that didn't impact the end result. I used a full tablespoon of ground cinnamon and a little more- maybe 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg as I have hardly any left and I still have holiday baking coming up.
Time to Complete: About 1 hour of prep time not counting baking. About 25 minutes of that was cooking the rice and I wasn't hurrying as I worked, I was Skyping with my sister during some of the prep time. Another 45-60 minutes for baking. (I chose to bake it at 325 degrees F and took the smaller pan that was on the bottom rack out after about 45 minutes, then moved the larger pan to the bottom rack for another 15 minutes.)
The Date/Year and Region: Recipe is English, published 1840 in the USA.
How Did You Make It: I followed the recipe except where I accidentally screwed up. I determined that one pint of rice is 2 cups dry. I chose to soak the rice first to minimize arsenic exposure. And some of her other recipes talk about soaking and draining the rice so I thought that was ok. I think that she also thought that I would be hulling the rice, but since I buy mine in a modern(ish) market, it comes pre-hulled. I boiled the rice and it was really mushy rice (I assume from presoaking it). I left that out overnight, kind of accidentally....but I figured that wouldn't kill anyone and it would be baked the next morning. I cut the butter into smaller pieces and smushed it around in the sugar then stirred that all in the rice. Honestly, I didn't think it was going to work because the butter wasn't all that soft but it worked just fine. Next I poured a quart of milk into the rice mixture, then beat 4 eggs in the baking dish. I beat the cinnamon/nutmeg mixture into the eggs (didn't read the directions super carefully) but I think that didn't impact the end result. I used a full tablespoon of ground cinnamon and a little more- maybe 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg as I have hardly any left and I still have holiday baking coming up.
Time to Complete: About 1 hour of prep time not counting baking. About 25 minutes of that was cooking the rice and I wasn't hurrying as I worked, I was Skyping with my sister during some of the prep time. Another 45-60 minutes for baking. (I chose to bake it at 325 degrees F and took the smaller pan that was on the bottom rack out after about 45 minutes, then moved the larger pan to the bottom rack for another 15 minutes.)
Total Cost: Grand total: about $3 USD. Rice: approximately 1.5 soles (50 cents at today's exchange rates); milk 2 soles (70 cents); butter: approximately 2 soles (70 cents); eggs 3 soles (about $1); cinnamon/nutmeg: negligible
How Successful Was It?: It was very tasty. The only thing is it was the faintest hint of sweetness...but that's because we have a palate that gets a lot more sugar. It still tasted good. I tried it both the way it was baked and sprinkling a little brown sugar on top (which made it even tastier to my modern palate).
How Accurate Is It?: I don't have loaf sugar and I didn't research what kind of rice they would have used. And I used all modern appliances and pans. But in general I think the result was fairly accurate.
Time to Research: Oh, Eliza! I looked up multiple rice pudding recipes and I have never seen a person who changes their recipe from edition to edition as much as she did. Like, it's hard to tell that the rice pudding recipes are even related. And at one point I found someone who transcribed my recipe to read half a pint of rice and I thought I had messed up big time...but all of my ratios turned out fine using 2 cups of dry rice (then cooked and cooled) to a quart of milk. I probably spent 1 hour looking up all of the different recipes and trying to figure out how much a pint of rice was in today's modern measures. But all's well that ends well and I like the final result.
How Successful Was It?: It was very tasty. The only thing is it was the faintest hint of sweetness...but that's because we have a palate that gets a lot more sugar. It still tasted good. I tried it both the way it was baked and sprinkling a little brown sugar on top (which made it even tastier to my modern palate).
How Accurate Is It?: I don't have loaf sugar and I didn't research what kind of rice they would have used. And I used all modern appliances and pans. But in general I think the result was fairly accurate.
Time to Research: Oh, Eliza! I looked up multiple rice pudding recipes and I have never seen a person who changes their recipe from edition to edition as much as she did. Like, it's hard to tell that the rice pudding recipes are even related. And at one point I found someone who transcribed my recipe to read half a pint of rice and I thought I had messed up big time...but all of my ratios turned out fine using 2 cups of dry rice (then cooked and cooled) to a quart of milk. I probably spent 1 hour looking up all of the different recipes and trying to figure out how much a pint of rice was in today's modern measures. But all's well that ends well and I like the final result.
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| The cooked rice after it sat out for 12 hours. |
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| Going in the oven to bake. |
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| The finished product. Not that pretty, but very tasty. |
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| What it looks like out of the pan. Yes, I did eat all of that. |
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| The second and larger pan. Not sure why, but it's more yellow. I think it got more of the egg mixture. |
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