What was it like to bake a Victorian era dessert in Canada’s Kitchener-Waterloo region during the early 1900s? Journey back in time with this serene video from Parcs Canada, featuring a recipe for pudding cottage et sauce au citron (cottage pudding and lemon sauce).
The dish is from The Berlin Cook Book, a Canadian book published 1906. Via the University of Waterloo: “Until 1916, the city of Kitchener, Ontario was known as Berlin, Ontario.”
From the Woodside National Historic Site, the boyhood home of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and “a portal to the Victorian era in Canada,” the recipe:
“1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, ½ cup of melted butter, 1 egg, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 pint sifted flour, bake ¾ an hour. Serve with sauce.”
“Lemon Sauce: 1 lemon, ¾ cup sugar, 1 cup boiling water, 1 ½ tablespoon cornstarch. Pare the lemon, being careful not to take off any of the white part of the rind. Pour the boiling water over the pairings, cover closely and steep 5 minutes.
“Mix cornstarch, sugar in a saucepan, stir in the steeped water and stir constantly until it boils. Remove from fire at once, add lemon juice. Serve hot…”
Enjoy more recipes and classic foods from history:
• How is Victorian Nectar Drop candy made?
• Making ice cream from a 350-year-old recipe
• Food of the Enslaved: Michael Twitty cooks recipes from American history
• How to Make Tomato Paste in Sicily
• Joseph Plumb Martin and A Starving Winter Soldier’s Meager Meal
• The science of Blue Corn Mush, a classic indigenous recipe
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