What's in a name?This week's recipe is a true British classic. Some old sources refer to it simply as Queen's Pudding while others use what I think is a better name: Queen of Puddings. Refer to the comments at the bottom of this post for my theory on why the latter is a better name.
Description
I like easy recipes. Modern recipe books seem to like to make things over-complicated. Perhaps their authors think they need to innovate to sell their book. Well I disagree. I believe simplicity is key. After all, that is what this blog is all about - preserving old British recipes.
Queen of Puddings is easy to make and uses very basic ingredients, but the result is very tasty. This recipe should provide four servings.
Ingredients
- 1 bag of Ruskoline Crumb Dressing (there are 2 bags in a pack - just use one of them). Ok, substitute half a cup of regular bread crumbs if you must; I suppose my business will recover eventually.
- 2 cups of milk
- 3 eggs
- Sugar
- Vanilla Essence
- Robertson's, Hartley's or Stute brand imported British jam (hey, come on I have to make a living you know)
Preparation
- Empty the Ruskoline into a large mixing bowl, boil the milk and pour over the Ruskoline
- Add a few drops of vanilla essence and some sugar. Stir, cover and leave for a few minutes
- Separate the eggs, beat the yolks and stir them into the Ruskoline/milk mixture
- Grease a baking dish, melt some jam and pour it into the dish
- Add the Ruskoline mix to the baking dish and place in an oven at 350F for 30 minutes
- Whisk the eggs whites with a little sugar until stiff peaks appear
- When the pudding has nearly finished baking remove it from the oven and spread the egg white meringue over the top of the pudding.
- Turn up the heat to 400F and bake until the tips of the meringue peaks start to turn brown
- Serve immediately to a grateful family who will worship you but expect the same quality of food for dinner every evening thereafter. You have been warned.
And why not? You can buy the Ruskoline and the Jam at Blighty's Tuck Store but I'm afraid you'll have to mug a farmer for the milk and eggs.
All the best,
John Corby, Owner/Manager
Blighty's Tuck Store Inc
Orangeville, Ontario, Canada
Alright then, why is "Queen of Puddings" the better name for this dish? The answer came to me when I saw it come out of the oven. Because it wears a crown of meringue!
ReplyDeleteOf course, this is just my own idea but if you spread it around the Internet everybody will begin to believe it. Hey, maybe it's true.