Charles Dickens' Chocolate Pudding

From Household Words, 1881-

Easy Peasy. First I assembled the ingredients- 

                3 eggs, separated 

          .25 LB of sugar

And then Schweitzer's Cocoatina? 

Yeah. They don't make that anymore. I just used what I had on hand. 

          "Since 1894". We're in the right ballpark.

I brought a pint of milk to boil and added the half pound of stale bread.

As per Dickens' instructions, I cooked it until it became a thick paste and then added the butter, sugar, cocoa, vanilla, and eggs. 

Hmmmmm.

I poured it into the greased baking dish, and guessed at the oven temp, setting it at 375. 

                                                                 

As it baked, I was shocked at the scent emitting from the kitchen. It was pleasant, like brownies. This was a completely unexpected development. *Insert Great Expectations double entendre here*. After 45 minutes, I pulled it out of the oven.

Slice and serve.

I tastes better than it looks, but not by much. It doesn't taste bad, it just doesn't taste like much of anything. It's sweet, and very mildly chocolaty, but it lacks any depth or complexity. Overall, it's pretty bland. The plainest hot chocolate would probably be more satisfying. The texture is a cross between a fallen soufflé and a brownie that hasn't been properly mixed. It's not unpleasant, just unusual. Johnny Murder says, "It was very off-pudding." Ha. 

I rate this recipe- 

4 Great Expectations for cooking instructions

2 David Copperfields for taste 

Resulting in a composite score of 3 Oliver Twists.  

Charles Dickens' Cheese Straws

And so begins my grand experiment where I follow recipes that are at least one hundred years old. Although I have started several Dickens novels in the past, I've never finished any of them. I've tholed through Stendhal, I love Dostotevsky and Gogol, I've even put a significant dent in Remembrances of Things Past, but Dickens... nope, nothing. So when I decided to start this project, I thought I'd give him a second chance and cook one of his recipes out of his magazine, Household Words (1881).

Rather than bite off more than I can chew, (Ha) I thought I'd start small and try out his recipe for Cheese Straws. The instructions looked simple enough.

Easy enough. 

Cheese, egg, and flour

Things quickly took a confusing turn when I "Mixed into a paste with the yolk of an egg." 

This is not a paste

So I added another yolk. No paste. And another yolk. No paste. And then I thought, perhaps Mr. Dickens or his readership would read those instructions and know to add a bit of liquid? Maybe that would be so common, it wouldn't have to be explicitly written into the instructions? So I added about a quarter cup of milk. The dough was very sticky, and I didn't chill it because I was still determined to follow the instructions to the best of my ability. 

Rolled out, cut, and twisted

"Bake in a moderate oven until crisp..." I started at 325. After 20 minutes, I got bored and cranked it to 400. "... but they must not be the least brown." Whoops. 

"Serve cold, piled tastefully on a glass dish."

And done. They taste okay, but more crumbly than crisp. I wouldn't serve these to quests, but I admit I keep munching on them. That speaks more to my laziness than Mr. Dickens' recipe. 

On a scale of 1 to 5, here's how Charlie's Cheese Straws rate-

1 Little Dorrit for cooking instructions

2 Nicholas Nickelbys for taste

A total score of 1.5 Bleak Houses

Luckily, I have a back up plan for dinner. 

Salmon I smoked, raspberries from the yard, and Akvavit from the booze store.