Bread Pudding

i had an aunt who used to make the best bread pudding i ever tasted. Unfortunately she has been deceased for many years and no one in the family has her recipe. i recently found some recipes that sound like they might come pretty close, but in my heart, her recipe will never be rivaled.

From The universal cookery book: Practical recipes for household use ~ Recipe For Bread Pudding: Take one pint of bread-crumbs soaked in one quart of sweet milk, one-half cup of white sugar, two eggs beaten thoroughly, heaping teaspoonful of butter, and salt to suit the taste; half cup of raisins; stir well together, and bake.

From Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats ~ Recipe For Bread Pudding: A quarter of a pound of grated stale bread. A quart of milk, boiled with two or three sticks of cinnamon, slightly broken. Eight eggs. A quarter of a pound of sugar. A little grated lemon-peel.Boil the milk with the cinnamon, strain it, and set it away till quite cold.

Grate as much crumb of stale bread as will weigh a quarter of a pound. Beat the eggs, and when the milk is cold, stir them into it in turn with the bread and sugar. Add the lemon-peel, and if you choose, a table spoonful of rose-water.

Bake it in a buttered dish, and grate nutmeg over it when done. Do not send it to table hot. Baked puddings should never be eaten till they have become cold, or at least cool.

From Modern cookery for private families: reduced to a system of easy practice ~ Recipe For Bread Pudding: Sweeten a pint of new milk with three ounces of fine sugar, throw in a few grains of salt, and pour it boiling on half a pound of fine and lightly-grated bread-crumbs; add an ounce of fresh butter, and cover them with a plate ; let them remain for half an hour or more.

Then stir to them four large well-whisked eggs, and a flavouring of nutmeg or of lemon-rind; pour the mixture into a thickly-buttered mould or basin, which holds a pint and a half, and which ought to be quite full; tie a paper and a cloth tightly over, and boil the pudding for exactly an hour and ten minutes.

This is quite a plain receipt, but by omitting two ounces of the bread, and adding more butter, one egg, a small glass of brandy, the grated rind of a lemon, and as much sugar as will sweeten the whole richly, a very excellent pudding will be obtained; candied orange-peel also has a good effect when sliced thinly into it; and half a pound of currants is generally considered a further improvement.

New milk, 1 pint; sugar, 3 oz.; salt, few grains ; bread-crumbs, 4 lb.; eggs, 4 (5, if very small); nutmeg or lemon-rind at pleasure: 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Or: milk, 1 pint; bread-crumbs, 6 oz.; butter, 2 to 3 oz.; sugar, 4 oz.; eggs, 5 ; brandy, small glassful; rind, 1 lemon. Further additions at choice: candied peel, 1 1/2 oz.; currants, 1/2 lb.

Text Credit: The universal cookery book: Practical recipes for household use

Text Credit: Seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats

Text Credit: Modern cookery for private families: reduced to a system of easy practice