Rice was a staple in many households and rice pudding was a popular dish. With many variations, it could be a breakfast dish or a dessert. There was no instant rice back in the 1800s, so rice took longer to prepare and cook.

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOK

A PLAIN RICE PUDDING
Swell the rice with a little milk over a fire, then put in acid apples pared and cut in thin slices, or gooseberries and currants. Add a couple of eggs and a teaspoon of salt. Fill your pudding bag* half full and boil it an hour and a half. Serve it up with butter and sugar.

*pudding cloth or bag – a large square of cloth usually made of linen or cotton cloth, to hold a pudding securely in a boiling water bath.

GROUND RICE PUDDING
Mix one-fourth pound of ground rice with a pint of cold milk till it is a smooth batter and free from lumps. Boil three pints of milk and when it has boiled, stir in gradually the rice batter, alternately with one-fourth pound of butter. Keep it over the fire stirring all the time till the whole is well mixed and has boiled hard. Then take it off, add one-fourth pound of white sugar, stir it well, and set it away to cool.

Beat eight eggs very light and stir them into the mixture when it is quite cold. Then strain it through a sieve, (this will make it more light and delicate). Add a grated nutmeg and a large teaspoon of powdered cinnamon. Next, stir in the juice and the grated peel of a lemon. Put it into a deep dish and bake it an hour. As soon as it comes out of the oven, lay slips of citron over the top and when cold, strew powdered sugar on it.

A FARMER’S RICE PUDDING
This pudding is made without eggs. Wash half a pint of rice through two cold waters and drain it well. Stir it raw into a quart of rich milk, or of cream and milk mixed, adding one-fourth pound of brown sugar and a tablespoon of powdered cinnamon. Put it into a deep pan and bake it two hours or more. When done, the rice will be perfectly soft, which you may ascertain by dipping a teaspoon into the edge of the pudding and taking out a little to try. Eat it cold.

RICE MILK
Pick and wash half a pint of rice and boil it in a quart of water till it is quite soft. Then drain it and mix it with a quart of rich milk. You may add half a pound of whole raisins. Set it over hot coals and stir it frequently till it boils. When it boils hard, stir in alternately two beaten eggs and four large tablespoons of brown sugar. Let it continue boiling five minutes longer, then take it off and send it to table hot.

A BOILED RICE PUDDING
Mix one-fourth pound of ground rice with a pint of milk and simmer it over hot coals, stirring it all the time to prevent its being lumpy or burning at the bottom. When it is thick and smooth, take it off and pour it into an earthen pan. Mix one-fourth pound of sugar and one-fourth pound of butter with half a pint of cream or very rich milk, and stir it into the rice. Then add a powdered nutmeg and the grated rind of two lemons. Beat the yolks of six eggs with the whites of two only. When the eggs are quite light, mix them gradually with the other ingredients and stir the whole very hard. Butter a large bowl or a pudding mold. Put in the mixture, tying a cloth tightly over the top so that no water can get in and boil it two hours. When done, turn it out into a dish. Send it to table warm and eat it with sweetened cream, flavored with a glass of brandy or white wine and a grated nutmeg.

RICE PUDDING à la WELLINGTON
Boil one-half pound rice for fifteen minutes in water. Drain it in a sieve and rinse with cold water. Return rice to the saucepan, add one-half bottle Rhine wine, the peel of one lemon, the juice of three lemons, and sweeten with sugar. When done, pour it into a border mold and set it in a cool place. In serving, turn it onto a round dish, decorate with preserved or stewed cherries and pour a little white syrup over the rice. Have ready a plombière of frozen raspberry ice in a high pointed form and put it in the center of the rice.

AN ALMOND RICE PUDDING
Blanch, in boiling water, three ounces of shelled almonds, afterwards throwing them into cold water. Pound them, one at a time, in a mortar till they become a smooth paste, adding frequently as you pound them, a few drops of rose-water to make them white and light and to prevent their oiling.

Take a quart of rich, unskimmed milk, and stir into it gradually, three large, heaping tablespoons of ground rice flour, alternately with the pounded almonds, and four heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar. Set the mixture over the fire and boil and stir it till very thick. Then put it into a deep dish and set it away to cool. When cold, have ready the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and thickened with powdered sugar that has been melted in rose-water. Cover the surface of the pudding with this. Set it in an oven just long enough to be slightly colored of a light brown. Send it to table cold.

RICE AND APPLE PUDDING
Ingredients, one pound of rice, twelve apples, two ounces of sugar. Tie up the rice very loose in a pudding-cloth, so that while boiling it may have sufficient room to swell out to five times its original quantity. While the rice is boiling, which will take about one hour, peel the apples and put them in a saucepan with nearly half-a-pint of water, a bit of butter, lemon-peel, and the sugar. Stew them on the fire till dissolved, stirring them while boiling for a few minutes. When your rice pudding is done and turned out on its dish, pour the apple-sauce over it. This cheap kind of rice pudding may also be eaten with all kinds of fruits, prepared in the same manner as herein directed for apples.

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