Pudin de Lolita, Lolita's Pudding -- a Pinedo recipe

On page 215 is this pudding, dedicated to Lolita.  I wish I knew who she was.  There are other puddings dedicated to other women, some of whom are clearly Encarnación Pinedo's nieces.  This could be to one of her nieces who was referred to by a nickname.  Or it could be to a family friend or cousin.  

What is intriuging about it is that it is a sweet pudding (one and a half pounds of sugar!!!) but it also has meat in it.  It reminds me of the old (early 1800s and prior) ante recipes.  They were originally designed to be served at the beginning of the meal (thus ante or "before") which did have meat and sugar in them.  Later they were declared to be desserts, and typically did not have meat in them.  Pinedo put several ante recipes in her book.  I made one previously, which you can view by clicking here:  Ante de Camote y Pina - A Luscious Dessert with Sweet Potatoes and Pineapple (pg 16).

The questions I had with this recipe are:  Exactly what kind of pudding is it?  She offered a variety of pudding styles, from boiled to steamed to baked to baked in a bain marie.  She mentioned using crumbled bread, so is it like a bread pudding?  But with the requirement of cream and eggs, presumably lots of them, I wondered if it were more like a baked custard.  I still don't know exactly what a "kettle cup" is, but I presume it is around what we call 2 cups or 16 ounces.  She said three kettle cups, which is six of our cups.  That is a lot of cream!  

I decided to create it as a custard pudding, with the eggs and cream being the major support and the other ingredients making it interesting.  I was very tempted to bake it in a bain marie, but decided she would have specified that if she felt it was important.  Puddings like this need to be baked in a very low oven so the custard doesn't curdle or cook up like scrambled eggs.  I also chose to interpret a kettle cup as one of our 8-ounce cups, at least at the beginning of making the recipe, until I saw how the thing was going together.  Then I would adjust as needed.

She did mention early in the pudding section that puddings should be put into shallow baking dishes.  Instructions noted!

Her recipe

My Translation

My Redaction

1 pound sliced almonds

1 1/2 pounds sugar

8 ounces chicken breast, already cooked

3 cups cream

1/2 ounce butter, melted

1/2 cup bread crumbs

6 large eggs, separated

For crumbs: I started with two 3-inch diameter rolls, broken open to dry, & pounded in the mortar.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Butter the inside of a large, shallow ceramic dish.  (See Notes.)

Chop the chicken breasts into about 1/4-inch pieces.  

In a large bowl, mix the cream and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the melted butter and mix well.

Separate the eggs.  Beat the yolks well and then mix them into the cream mixture.

Mix the bread crumbs into the cream mixture.

Mix the chicken and almonds into the cream mixture.  

Whip the egg whites to stiff.  Fold them into the cream mixture.

Fill the baking dish.  

Bake for 1 hour (see Notes), until the center jiggles when the pan is shaken but stops when the movement stops, and the top is browned.  

Let cool at least a little before serving.

Chopped chicken.

Cream, sugar, yolks, and breadcrumbs, all mixed.

With the chicken and almonds.

With whipped egg whites.  That is one full bowl!

My Notes

Instead of two chicken breasts as she specified, I decided the one really big one I had on hand would suffice.  I weighed it instead of counting the quantity.

The chicken breast was previously cooked on a grill after being rubbed with olive oil and ground black pepper.  There was not a lot of seasoning on the piece I chose, so I don't think the pepper influenced the flavor of the dish.

I did some reading in my Ratio book by Michael Ruhlman in order to get a sense of how many eggs were "necessary."  Believing this would be a custard-like dish, I decided to use 6 eggs for 3 cups of liquid, giving a ratio of 12 ounces eggs to 24 ounces cream.  Keep in mind that eggs are very carefully sized for us, whereas Señorita Pinedo made do with whatever eggs were available to her.  They could have been all different sizes.

I had no idea how much volume the recipe would make, so I ended up using two ceramic baking dishes; one held 2 1/2 liters and the other 2 liters.  It helped to use a ladle to move the batter into the dishes.  

I thought it was done after 45 minutes of cooking, but once I broke through the crust on the top, the middle looked liquid, so I put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes.  It is possible it was ready at 45 minutes -- it was browned and it certainly smelled good.  

Ready for the oven.  Two full baking dishes.

After 60 minutes of baking time.

The Verdict

Letting the pudding cool a little seemed to give it a chance to set up in the middle.

The browned top was a crunchy crust.

My first bite was ... interesting.  Wow, was it sweet!  But the flavor of the meat came through, which was intriguing when combined with the almonds and the sweet.

The custard I expected was more like the matrix which held together the chicken and almonds.  It was not dense; I suspect because of the whipped egg whites.  

It tooks a few bites before I really liked it.  My mouth had to adjust to the concept of meat and sweet.  But then I liked it.  The almonds added a nice crunch.  

It was sweet, as I said, and it was rich.  I will have more, as will my guest taster who was trying to guess all that was in it and thought there was some fruit in it.   He certainly enjoyed it.

In thinking about this blog post, I had trouble deciding if it was a dessert (but it had meat in it!) or a side dish (but it was sweet!).  My guest taster thought you could have it as either, depending on what you wanted for the meal.  I think that is good advice.  

I then shared this with two other guest tasters.  One, quite the foodie, thought it wasn't very sweet at all (I was astonished) and liked that because he doesn't really like sweet foods.  He also felt, at first, that it had undercooked bread in it but then later decided that wasn't it and it wasn't a problem.  He loved the nuts and how crunchy they were.  He was surprised to know there was meat in it.  

The other guest taster did not enjoy the food.  He felt his mouth was "conflicted" because of the meat and sweet combination.  It was "okay" but not something he would want to repeat.  But he did think that he could get used to it if he other opportunities to try it.

Success!

It was just as good warmed up the next day.  Maybe even better, as I got more of the custardy part in each spoonful.

I hope Lolita would be pleased with my result.

If I were to do this again, I would use half the amount of chicken and almonds, and I would use about 1/3 of the amount of sugar.  But I would still use the same amount of cream and eggs and bread crumbs because my mouth kept wanting more of that matrix around the meat and nuts.  I think changing the amount of butter is optional.

If I did this as a modern "upgrade," I would reduce the amount of sugar a lot, try using whole milk instead of cream, and consider using raisins as a delightful bit of chewy sweet.  But still use chicken, because I think it surprises people, and that is always fun.

Huevos con queso - Eggs with Cheese, a Pinedo recipe

It's time for a Pinedo recipe!  If you are new to this blog, I translated Encarnación Pinedo's 1898 cookbook, El Cocinero Español (The Spanish Cook) and am attempting to get it published.  In the meantime, I cook from it and post the attempts here on the 15th of the month.  I also publish them on my Pinedo-only blog, "The Spanish Cook Without Equal", found here:  https://pinedo1898.blogspot.com/ 

Today's recipe is on page 127, "Huevos con queso" or "Eggs with Cheese."

My Translation

Keeping in mind that she was cooking over fire; the idea of browning with a hot fire is equivalent to broiling in an oven.

My Redaction

Per serving:

butter

1 slice bread

1/4 to 1/3 cup shredded cheese

1 egg

ground pepper

ground nutmeg

The butter asked politely to be included.

Melt butter in frying pan.  Add slice of bread, sprinkle most of the shredded cheese on the bread, break open the egg, and gently let it sit on top of the cheese.  Sprinkle the egg with the rest of the cheese and then with pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Set heat to low, cover the pan, let cook for 6 to 10 minutes or until egg is cooked almost to your liking.  When the egg is nearly cooked, place pan under the broiler for a minute or two to finish melting the cheese and brown it a little.

My Notes

She didn't say to use butter on the pan, but I did anyway.

I used mozzarella cheese, although I think a stronger flavored cheese would be good, too.

I tried this twice.  The first time the heat was 2 of 10, I did not cover the pan, and after nearly 45 minutes, the egg was not cooked and the bread was toasted too much.  I put a lid on it and let it cook a few minutes more before broiling it.  The result was an egg that was overcooked (I like runny yolks) and dry toast.  Not exciting.  My guest taster didn't realize that there were any spices on it, and I had trouble tasting them even though I knew they were there.

Build the bread stack in the pan.

Bread and cheese

Bread cheese egg.

Bread cheese egg cheese spices.  Use more spices.

After about 30 minutes of cooking.  The cheese melting but the egg is still uncooked.

After cooking under the lid for about 10 minutes.  Egg is cooked.

Under the broiler for less than two minutes.

Overcooked, in my opinion.

The Verdict

The second time the heat was set a little higher, 4 of 10, and I covered the pan.  After 8 minutes the egg was nearly done but the toast was burnt (ugh).  I didn't broil it because I didn't want to cook the toast any further.

I also used more spices, but not too much.  

What I got was an egg that was cooked just right and toast that was blackened on the bottom and not tasty.  I could taste the spices, which I liked.

Attempt #2, after about 8 minutes cooked under the lid.

Egg is just right.  Toast is burnt.

My conclusion:  use the lower heat and cover the pan.  No one wants to wait 45 minutes or more to eat their egg and toast.

So success?  Almost but I'm not sure I can really count it as such yet.  With a little practice I could get the timing just right and really enjoy it.

I think this would be a good meal to serve a crowd with these modifications:  Heat the oven to 350 degrees F, use a cookie sheet and set up each serving on the sheet so you can cook a bunch at a time.  You might not need to broil them but the broiler is right there if you do.  While one batch is cooking, set up the next.  

This also seems like a good camping recipe, since you get toast and an egg with one pan (and a lid!) and one cooking run.

Eggs Bourgeoise - An American Civil War recipe

Recently I participated in a Civil War reenactment as a cook.  I did my homework and found a cookbook from 1833, which was clearly still in use 30 years later.  How did I know that?  I had been sifting through Godey's Lady's Book, a popular magazine at the time, for relevant recipes (they called them "receipts") and realized that some of them were copied directly from the 1833 book.

It is also reasonable to believe that recipes from 30 years previous could still be in use when considering how people passed cookbooks through generations and how favorite recipes are recalled even without a written reminder.  

The book I used is called The Cook's Own Book, written by Mrs. N. K. M. Lee.  Click here to see an 1854 reprint of her book.  It is quite complete with advice on food items and their health benefits (or detriments) as well as a focus on confectionery and extra recipes from Eliza Leslie, born in the late 1700s and wrote many cookbooks and other works.  Click here to see Project Gutenberg's list of her books.

The recipe I tried is on page 70, called Eggs Bourgeoise.  It seemed like just the right thing to cook over charcoal to add to the group breakfast menu.

For this blog post, I tried it at home in a modern kitchen.  In my notes below, I'll comment on the changes I made for the reenactment.

My Redaction

1 tablespoon butter (more is okay)

4 large slices of sourdough bread

4 slices of swiss cheese

10 eggs, beaten with

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

(I forgot to use nutmeg)

Alas, no nutmeg.

Using a 9-inch diameter cast iron skillet, warm the butter over low heat until it melts.  Coat the bottom and the sides of the pan with the butter.   Having some extra butter in the bottom of the pan is a benefit.

Arrange the bread to cover the bottom of the pan, tearing the pieces as needed to fit.

Arrange the cheese to cover the layer of bread, tearing the pieces to fit.

Pour the eggs, salt, and pepper mixture over the bread and cheese.

Set the pan over low heat (I started at 3 of 10).  Allow to cook until eggs are puffed and firm and they pull away from the pan's sides, about 25 to 30 minutes.  

If the eggs smell "done" but are not fully set, turn the heat down to finish cooking.  Tilt the pan as needed to move the liquid eggs from the center to the sides.  

The eggs might settle after removing them from the heat.

Slice and serve (or use a big spoon to scoop out what you want instead of slicing into wedges).

Bread and butter

With cheese.

And eggs.  Notice how the cheese is floating.

My Notes

At the reenactment, I removed the crusts from the bread in case someone didn't like that.  I also used shredded mozzarella cheese instead of sliced swiss.  

At first I used 8 eggs but that did not look like enough, so I added 4 more eggs.  That was too much!  At first it fit in the pan but when the eggs started to puff, they almost overflowed the pan.  That is why I used 10 eggs at home.  

My charcoal was gentle enough at the reenactment.  At home, the stove setting of 3 seemed too high after 15 minutes, so I put it down to 1 of 10 to finish cooking.  I think 1 or 2 from the beginning would have been fine, although it might have taken longer to cook.  I don't know how long it took over charcoal.

Pretty!

The Verdict

I served it for breakfast, but honestly, it can be served as a luncheon or supper dish.

In both cases, it was good.  As in, "Wow, this tastes great!  I want more!" as a reaction from all who tried it in both locations.  

I noticed the bread and cheese floated in the eggs when I poured in the eggs at home than what I recall at the reenactment.  Not that it mattered or made any difference in the final product, just an observation.

It looked like the bread formed a sort of crust, which I believe protected the eggs from overcooking.  At the least it added bulk and a lovely chewy aspect to the dish.  (Except for the very middle of the home version, where something overcooked a little and it was harder to cut through the crust.)

The mozzarella cheese melted into the eggs as they cooked.  The swiss floated on top and melted across the cooked eggs.  Both worthwhile results.  

The amount of salt and pepper was just right.  I wish I had remembered the nutmeg!

It was a robust main dish, creamy and chewy and savory.  Success, both times.

The leftovers (at home) were good reheated, too.

If I didn't want quite so much, I would use a smaller pan to achieve the same results.  Just use enough bread to cover the bottom, a generous helping of cheese (shredded was easier, I thought), and fewer eggs.  Reduce the amount of seasoning.  Leave enough room for the eggs to puff.

You could also bake it in the oven, like a fritatta.

This is clearly a good meal for camping.

I think a fresh salsa would be good over the top.  Try it!

Eggs Baked in Whole Tomatoes -- a recipe from the The Egg Basket of the World

In 1879 Lyman Byce and Isaac Dias invented the first reliably working incubator for hatching eggs in Petaluma, California.  This sparked the creation of egg ranches in the area and, by 1917, Petaluma was considered the "undisputed" world leader of the chicken and egg industry.

The town embraced this and unabashedly promoted itself and its industry as "The Egg Basket of the World", offering a National Egg Day which included a parade with an Egg Queen and her court of attendant chicks, and decorating the town with giant plaster egg baskets and roosters.  In 1918, Petaluma reported producing 16 million dozen eggs.

In 1927, the Petaluma High School Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) published The Egg Basket Cook Book to help finance the PTA activities as well as promote the industry and share their egg-cooking knowledge.

The book is basically what I call a "ladies' group" cookbook because most (if not all) the recipes were submitted by Petaluma locals.  I value these recipes because no one is going to submit a recipe that they think is subpar, knowing their neighbors might try them.  The recipes are tried and true.

I chose the "Eggs Baked in Whole Tomatoes" recipe in the "From the Egg Basket" section on page 27.  This section also addresses the food value of eggs and methods of cooking them.  What is amusing about the entire book is that no recipe has "eggs" in them -- the word is always written as "EGGS".

Eggs Baked in Whole Tomatoes  -- M.P.

3 tomatoes

3 EGGS

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons buttered crumbs

3 slices of bacon

Breakfast!

Scoop out centers of large ripe tomatoes.  Break an EGG into each, season and cover with crumbs and lay a slice of bacon on each.  Bake in a moderate oven.  Turn bacon once while cooking.  Place under broiler to brown bacon.

My Notes

I noticed the pattern of one egg and one slice of bacon per tomato.  I only needed two servings, so I reduced everything down to enough for two.

The oven was set to 350 degrees F.  

I sliced the top of the tomatoes off with a knife then used a spoon to scoop out the centers.

Each tomato was set in a glass baking dish before I put the egg inside.

I didn't bother with buttered crumbs as I figured the bacon would drop grease onto them.  I cut the bacon slice in half and put the pieces as an "X" over the top.

I baked the tomatoes for 25 minutes.  See comments below.

Halfway through.  Time to turn the bacon.

Done. (Almost)

The Verdict

I served it with toast and juice.

A tidy breakfast.

Twenty-five mintues was not enough time.  The tomato was somewhat cooked, but the egg was raw.  

So I tried again, turning the temperature down to 325 degrees and cooking for 45 minutes.  The tomatoes were cooked through (skin split and the rest was soft) and the eggs were cooked.  But the yolks were solid, and I really wanted runny yolks.

I kept trying through several attempts.  I kept getting either raw eggs (325 degrees and 35 minutes) or solid yolks.

My observation is that the timing depends on the thickness of the tomato.  If the walls are thin, everything cooks quickly.  Thick walls take more time for the heat to get to the egg.  Don't be fooled by the top of the egg looking cooked!

Success, but it took a while.  The last time I tried it was with thick-walled tomatoes.  They cooked for 45 minutes at 325 degrees.  This gave basically soft-cooked eggs.  The whites were cooked but not hard and the yolks were soft but not runny.  The tomato was cooked through and soft.

I served it in bowls because the tomato released a lot of juice when it was cut.  Tasty!

It is not necessary to turn the bacon.  Just broil it for a minute or two at the end of the cooking cycle and it is done.  (I like chewy bacon.)

A large tomato can be scooped out so much that two eggs will fit inside it.  This takes longer to cook.

Make sure the tomato is shaped to stand upright when the stem end is removed.  Roma tomatoes are not very good for this.

If you want to read more about the history of Petaluma, see this book:

Heig, Adair.  History of Petaluma:  A California River Town.  Scottwall Associates.  Petaluma. 1982,

which you can access online by clicking here:  Heig.

Candied Egg Yolks

I find reading recipes from other cultures and times to be fascinating -- I love learning new techniques and new flavor combinations.  Having a sweet tooth, I also love to read and sometimes try recipes that use sugar.  This recipe from Encarnación Pinedo's book, El cocinero español, published in 1898, on page 13:

My translation:

Brilliant sugar syrup bath. 

The amount of sugar is graduated according to what you want bathe and add syrup that is clarified, letting it boil until, taking a little with your fingers, it snaps between them.  Once the syrup is cooked to its point, take the saucepan off the fire, nestle it into straw, and add almonds, cooked egg yolks or whatever you want to polish, covering the saucepan so that it cannot give the air to the syrup and so it is left until it is perfectly cold. Once cold, the rind or crust that has been formed is cut on the side of the yolks or what has been done:  this will be carefully removed, and the honey is drained well; immediately rinse them in warm water and again let drain.

It is intriguing!  I've candied nuts and peel before, but I have never thought about candying cooked egg yolks.  

I looked around the internet and discovered there is a classic Spanish recipe called "Yemas de Santa Teresa".  The recipes vary but the general technique is to make a sugar syrup flavored with lemon peel (or juice) and sometimes cinnamon, then the raw egg yolks are mixed into it.  The whole mixture is cooked lightly, cooled, and formed into balls that are sometimes rolled in powdered sugar.  It is quite popular.

So this seemed to me an adaptation of the idea, and I wanted to try it.  

The challenge is deciding what temperature is right for the sugar syrup.  The idea that the hot syrup snaps between your fingers suggests the hard crack stage (about 300 degrees F) but allowing the ingredients to soak in the syrup until everything is cold and there is syrup to drain off suggests the thread stage (about 230 - 235 degrees F).  

I chose the thread stage so as to have something to drain when the mixture is cold instead of a solid block of candy. Also, I'm not sure anyone wants to put their fingers into syrup at the hard crack stage.

My Redaction

6 hard-cooked eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

*Have a candy thermometer handy, if possible.

Just add water.

Carefully peel the eggs and remove the whites.  The goal is to keep the yolks as whole and round as they can be.  Save the whites for another recipe.

Put the sugar and water into a small saucepan that has a well-fitting lid.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved.  The mixture won't be clear but you won't hear any more scraping noise from the sugar on the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat to medium.

Do not stir the mixture any more.  Watch it cook (it will boil and turn clear at about 212 degrees F) and start checking the temperature after it boils.

When the temperature of the liquid hits 232 degrees F, remove it from the heat and put it on a folded towel.  Then carefully add the yolks.  They float, so gently swirl the pan to make sure the yolks are completely coated with the syrup.

Finally, put on the lid and wrap the pan in towels.  I used two:  one under the pan that also came up and covered the lid, and one that wrapped around the sides.  I tucked the towels closely around the pan and left it to cool, undisturbed.

After letting it sit for 11 hours, I unwrapped the pot and opened the lid.

There was no crust to cut.  The syrup was very thick.  The yolks had remained floating, so the tops did not look candied.

The tops looked a little dry.

I used a slotted spoon to remove them to a colander.  They were so fragile!  I accidently tapped one with the spoon and a piece broke off.  Be very careful when fishing them out of the syrup.

Putting them in the colander was not a good choice -- the syrup was so thick that it was slow to move through the holes.  So I moved everything to a rack.

This made it easy to separate the yolks and also to pour warm water over them, letting the plate catch the pour.  I turned the yolks over after the first rinse and then poured a little more.

Shiny!  And a little damp, still.

I decided to let them sit out overnight to dry.

The Verdict

The next morning, they had lost their sheen.

I tasted one and it was -- disappointing.  

It tasted like a cooked egg yolk.  It was only vaguely sweet.  It was not interesting or different; it could have been just freshly taken from the hard-cooked egg and had a little sugar sprinkled on it.  The texture was that of a cooked egg yolk.  Honestly, I think it would have tasted better with a little salt on it.

I'm not willing to say Miss Pinedo was wrong here; I think I misjudged the syrup temperature.  My guess was based on her statements about the syrup snapping between your fingers and that the yolks had to soak in the syrup until everything was cold.  

It is not clear to me that cooking the syrup at a higher temperature would have improved the result.  The syrup did not penetrate the yolks much, as can be seen here:

The darker areas show about how far the sugar penetrated into the yolk.  I had hoped for more after it sat for so long.  Cooking the syrup to a higher temperature would not have had it penetrate so far, I suspect (but don't know).

I had also hoped for a shiny, possibly hard, shell around them, which I knew might not happen with the syrup cooked to below the hard crack stage.  I don't know why the instructions were to rinse them with warm water as it didn't seem to help at all.

Before I cleaned everything up, I decided to dunk two of the remaining three yolks into the syrup and allow them to drain and dry.

Easy to tell which two were recoated.

These were definitely improved.  The sugar coating made the creamy yolk-to-sugar ratio better, making it more like a candy than just an egg yolk.  They were shinier and also not sticky once they had some time to dry.  I wonder if dunking and drying them again would make it even better. 

I will call this a failure.  Perhaps I can learn more and improve it.  Or perhaps I will try the Yemas de Santa Teresa as a comparison.