Welcome back! Today, we are going to talk about the history of bread pudding here in the United States.
More history
My research reveals that bread pudding was a popular food on literally both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. It seems that during the Civil War, soldiers were known to substitute biscuits for bread and, apparently, sweeteners were extremely difficult to recover, especially for Confederate soldiers. My research revealed some pretty colorful descriptions of, in times of desperation and overwhelming cravings for sweets, soldiers would crumble cookies and mix them with the sugar they found along with raisins and water and boil the mixture in tin cups. There are also stories about how the shortage of sugar and flour during those times of war, led to the preparation of fruit cakes that were described as “fearsome to taste and digestion.”
A SAMPLE OF BREAD PUDDING RECIPES THROUGH TIME
Here are a couple of recipes that I came across in my research for bread pudding. As you can see from the dates, they are very old. I found it interesting to read them and use my imagination to visualize how things were done back then.
[1747] “A bread pudding Cut the entire crust of a white Penny bread and cut it into thin slices in a liter of new milk, place it on a source of embers, until the bread has absorbed all the milk, then put a piece of sweet butter, stir, let it rest until let it cool, or you can boil the milk and pour it over the bread and cover it well, it also fills up; then take the yolks of six eggs, the whites of three, and beat them with a little rose water and nutmeg, a little salt and sugar, and if you wish, mix well and boil for half an hour. . “—The art of cooking, simple and easy, Hannah Glasse [1747] P. 109
[1824] “Bread pudding Grate the crumb of a stale bread and pour it into half a liter of boiling milk, let it rest for an hour and then beat it until obtaining a pulp; Add six well beaten eggs, half a pound of butter, the same powdered sugar, half a nutmeg, a glass of brandy and a little grated lemon peel; put a paste on the plate and bake. “—Virginia’s housewife, Mary Randolph, 1824 facsimile edition with historical notes and comments by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 150)
In my next post, I will include some more recent recipes. I hope you again enjoy looking back to compare these recipes and see how they have changed over the centuries. We will even get to some very current recipes that, perhaps, you would like to try. I am sure you will find that the basic recipe lends itself to many modifications and has endless possibilities for variation. Come back in a few days for the rest of the story …
Bon Appetite