Almond Pudding

Origin: Tidewater Virginia

Source: Mary Randolph, 1824

History

This is the almond pudding printed in Mary Randolph's The Virginia House-Wife: 'Put a pound of sweet almonds in hot water till the skin will slip off them; pound them with a little orange flower or rose water, to keep them from oiling; mix with them four crackers, finely pounded, or two gills of rice flour; six eggs, a pint of cream, a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, and four table-spoonsful of wine; put a nice paste in the bottom of your dish, garnish the edges, pour in the pudding, and bake it in a moderate oven'. The Virginia House-Wife was first published in 1824 and is generally considered the first regional American cookbook. The dish was not a Virginia invention: baked almond puddings of this construction — blanched almonds pounded with rose water 'to keep them from oiling,' then bound with eggs, cream, sugar and butter and baked in a pastry crust — were already standard in English printed cookery. Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747) opens its 'To make pretty Almond Puddings': 'Take a Pound and half of blanched Almonds, beat them fine with a little Rose-water'. Seventeenth-century English recipe collections already grouped almond among puddings baked as 'pastry crusts filled with custard, cooked fruit, or rice and cream'. Beyond this, the record does not document a specific migration route or class meaning for this baked version.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Put a pound of sweet almonds in hot water till the skin will slip off them.
  2. Pound them with a little orange flower or rose water, to keep them from oiling.
  3. Mix with them four crackers finely pounded, or two gills of rice flour; six eggs; a pint of cream; a pound of sugar; half a pound of butter; and four table-spoonsful of wine.
  4. Put a nice paste in the bottom of your dish and garnish the edges.
  5. Pour in the pudding and bake it in a moderate oven.

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