Irish Potato Pudding

From “A Facsimile of “American Cookery,” 1796
by Amelia Simmons

When we think of Irish food, the potato is probably the first thing that comes to mind! As we researched festive 18th Century Irish holiday foods, we discovered two things. The first was, Irish in the 1700s didn’t seem to have any sort of fancy foods (at least that were written about). The second? Well, every time someone spoke of foods in conjunction with the Irish folks they came across, they mentioned potatoes. Scouring our period cookbooks, we came across this recipe which contains some fairly expensive ingredients – especially compared to “Recipe No. 1.”

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb. white potatoes, boiled and mashed
• 3 sticks unsalted butter
• ¾ cup milk or cream (a gill is roughly ¼ cup)
• 1 lemon, juiced and zested
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ -1 tsp. nutmeg
• 4 whole eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tsp. rose water can be found at many natural food stores

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease casserole dish or pudding mold. Mix all ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl; it will be fairly liquid, as it bakes like a custard. Depending on the size of the dish, bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

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