Barley Pudding*
| Categories: | English Pudding 17th century grain |
| Original Source: | Digby, The Closet Opened |
| Secondary Source: | Cariadoc collection |
| Cook: | Wantelet FitzNigel |
| Meeting Date: | 0000-00-00 |
| Serves: | 8
|
Take two Ounces of Barley pick'd and washed; boil it in Milk, till it is tender; then let your Milk run from it; Then take half a Pint of cream, and six spoonfuls of the boiled barley; eight spoonfuls of grated bread, four Eggs, two whites taken away. Spice as you please, and Sugar and Salt as you think fit, one Marrow-bone, put in the lumps as whole as you can; Then make Puff-paste, and rowl a thin sheet of it, and lay it in a dish. Then take Cream, grated bread, your Spice, Sugar, Eggs and Salt; beat all these very well together half a quarter of an hour, pour it on your dish where Citron is, then cover it over with puff-paste, and let it bake in a quick oven three-quarters of an hour. Scrape Sugar on it, and serve it up.
Ingredients
| 2 oz. | barley, washed (about 4 1/2 Tbs.) |
| 1/2 c. | milk |
| 1 1/4 c. | cream |
| 8 Tbs. | breadcrumbs |
| 4 | eggs less 2 whites |
| nutmeg, cloves, cinammon, mace, ginger to taste | |
| salt, sugar to taste | |
| marrow from one beef shin bone | |
| 1 recipe | puff pastry or sweet pie dough |
| green citron, thinly sliced (about 1/4 lb or so) | |
Steps
- Preheat the oven to 450°.
- Boil the barley in the milk until tender. Drain the barley. Combine 6 Tb of the cooked barley with the cream, breadcrumbs and eggs. Spice, sugar and salt the mixture to taste; it should be well-seasoned.
- Place a layer of pastry in a deep dish pie plate. Lay the pieces of citron on the pastry, covering it.
- Beat the barley mixture for seven minutes and pour into the dish, Cover with a layer of puff pastry and seal the edges.
- Bake for 45 minutes and 450°.
- Scrape sugar over the pie and serve.
- NB: if using puff pastry, serve the pie immediately after it comes from the oven, as the puffed pastry collapses as it cools.
Note
The ingredients are fairly straightforward. The green citron is probably the candied rind of the fruit, available in gourmet stores; it is not a lime. Puff paste adds a lot to the dish, but if the spirit is weak or the hands unwilling, a good sweet pie dough may be substituted. These may be made from any modern recipe.
Has been used for feast with sweet pastry. Excellent flavor. The citron adds a nice quality to the texture and flavor. The beating is hard work if done by hand.