Cookery for every household

A Baked Milk Pudding. — If a milk pudding has to be baked in the oven without any previous cooking in a saucepan, the oven must be a very slow one, otherwise the milk will boil over and burn, before the grain has had time to swell and thicken it. Several hours in a slow oven are much better than a shorter time in a hot one. If, on the other hand, the farinaceous substance has been cooked in a saucepan, and the pudding is merely put into the oven to cook the eggs and brown the top, a fairly hot oven is best. When baking a custard pudding, it is a good plan to place the pie dish containing it in a tin with a little water round it, as this will avoid the danger of its boiling and curdling. The same method should be employed for other puddings when the heat of the oven is very strong from below. A baked milk pudding should never be the unsightly looking object so often seen on our dinner tables. This is often owing to the mixture being put into a burnt-looking pie dish to begin with, or its boiling over in the oven and burning on the edge of the dish. In the first case the pie dish should be scrubbed clean with a little salt or Brooke’s soap before the mixture is put into it, and then, if the mixture should burn on the edges in the oven, it should be carefully scraped off with a knife, and the dish wiped with a cloth before it is sent to table. Then the dish may be further covered by having a pie-dish frill put round it. Baked Milk Pudding and the pudding itself should be lightly sprinkled with a little castor sugar. A Steamed Milk Pudding. — Most of the milk puddings made with eggs may be steamed instead of baked. The most suitable are : rice, semolina, tapioca, sago, custard, and bread and butter. For steaming, use rather less milk, keeping the mixture somewhat thicker, as steaming is a moist heat and does not dry up the mixture like baking. An extra eggmay sometimes be necessaryto bind the mixture. The basin or mould used for steaming must be greased out very thoroughly with clarified butter, which must be allowed to harden on the basin ; or, while it is still soft, the basin or mould may be coated with brown sugar or with fine biscuit crumbs. Any carelessness in the preparation of the mould will cause the pudding to stick. Steam milk puddings very slowly, or the eggs will curdle, and allow them to stand for a minute or two before turning them out. 1703. Barley Pudding (without Eggs) 2 oz. pearl barley. A little water. 1 pt. milk. 1 oz. butter. Sugar to taste. A little flavouring. A pinch of salt. First wash and blanch the barley, that is, put it into a saucepan with cold water to cover it, bring this to the boil, strain and rinse the barley. This blanching makes the barley a better colour. Then put it into a basin, cover it with cold water and let it stand overnight. Next day put it into a well-greased pie dish with the milk, sugar, and flavouring to taste, and the butter broken in small pieces. Bake in a slow oven until the barley is thoroughly cooked, stirring up the barley once or twice towards the beginning of the cooking. Time to bake, 2 to 3 hours. Sufficient for 3 persons. Probable cost, 4 d. 1704. Barley Pudding (with Eggs) 2 oz. pearl barley. 1 gill water. 1 pt. milk. 1 or 2 eggs. 1 or 2 table-sps. sugar. Grated lemon rind. A pinch of salt. A small piece of butter.