SC - Art/Sci results

[LrdRas@aol.com]

On a whim, I decided last Tuesday that I would enter something in Art/Sci, 
since I had to be there with my Clan sister, da Queen.  I made rice puddings. 
 Here goes:

Original recipe from Gervase Markham's The English Hous-Wife, 1615:  Take 
halfe a pound of Rice, and steep it in new Milk a whole night, and in the 
morning drain it, and let the Milk drop away, and take a quart of the best, 
sweetest, and thickest Cream, and put the Rice into it, and boyl it a little. 
 Then set it to cool and hour or two, and after put in the yolkes of half a 
dozen Eggs, a little Pepper, Cloves, Mace, Currants, Dates, Sugar, and Salt, 
put in a great store of Beef suet well beaten, and small shred, and so put it 
into the farms and boyl them as before shewed, and serve them after a day old.

My redaction:  
1/2 lb short-grain white Valencia rice
2 c whole milk
1 qt heavy whipping cream
6 egg yolks (laid Wednesday, free-range browns)
1/2 c turbinado sugar (all natural from Hain's)
1/8 t white pepper
1/8 t salt
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t ground mace
1/4 c golden raisins (I discovered tomy dismay at 2 AM that my box of dates 
left over from Xmas were not in the house)
1/4 c chopped dates
2 T beef suet, beaten and shredded

Steep rice in milk for 10-12 hours.  Drain well.  In a saucepan, bring the 
cream and the rice to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes, stirring 
constantly.  It will thicken considerably.  Remove from heat and let stand 2 
hours.  Steep the fruits in warm water while the rice & cream are cooling.  
Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and spices.  Fold this mixture into the 
rice & cream.  Fold in the plumped fruits.  Mix in the suet.  Pour batter 
into ramekins.  Place them into a roaster pan and fill to within 1/2 inch of 
rims with hot water.  Cover and steam in 350 deg. oven for 45 minutes.  Chill 
overnight, bring to room temp before serving.

It got rave reviews from everyone who tasted it.  The judging form contained 
a lot of Excellents! and Nicely Dones!  and Making for Which Feast in the 
Future?  ;-)  It received the full ten point score of Extraordinary Merit, 
and was apparently nominated for a Non-Pareil (the lady who received the 
Non-Pareil did a scroll that was drop-dead gorgeous, hand-made vellum, 
paints, inks, etc., 24-k gold leaf, just splendid work and highly deserving 
of the honor, IMHO).

I've entered Art/Sci before.  Each time, it was with some art form I was just 
learning, or not very accomplished at, and the experiences were, shall we 
say, less than happy ones.  This time, I finally just did what I'm good at, 
and now I'm stoked to do it again.  Off I go now, to plot out the dishes for 
the next one.

Walk in peace,
Wolfmother

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