Ratifia Pudding

Instructions

1. Flavour a pint and a half of new milk rather highly with bitter almonds, blanched and bruised, or, should their use be objected to, with three or four bay leaves and a little cinnamon.
2. Add a few grains of salt, and from four to six ounces of sugar in lumps, according to the taste.
3. When the whole has simmered gently for some minutes, strain off the milk through a fine sieve or muslin, and put it into a clean saucepan.
4. When it again boils stir it gradually and quickly to six well-beaten eggs which have been likewise strained; let the mixture cool, and then add to it a glass of brandy.
5. Lay a half-paste round a well-buttered dish, and sprinkle into it an ounce of ratifias finely crumbled, grate the rind of a lemon over, and place three ounces of whole ratifias upon them.
6. Pour in sufficient of the custard to soak them; an hour afterwards add the remainder, and send the pudding to a gentle oven: half an hour will bake it.
7. Proportions: New milk, 1-1/2 pint; bitter almonds, 6 or 7 (or bay leaves, 3 to 5, and bit of cinnamon); sugar, 4 to 6 oz.; eggs, 6; brandy, 1 wineglassful; ratifias, 4 oz.; rind 1/2 lemon: baked 1/2 hour.