Rice Pudding

Baked rice pudding is the canonical English nursery and school pudding, descended from a much older medieval tradition of slow-cooked grain-and-milk dishes. Rice reached England from Italy and the eastern Mediterranean in the 15th century and was first used in sweet, spiced 'pottages' cooked long in milk or almond milk. The slow-baked, skin-on version crystallised in 19th-century English cookery: short-grain rice baked in a deep dish with whole milk, sugar and nutmeg, ungoved and unstirred for two hours so that a thick golden skin forms on top. Mrs Beeton gives a recipe in 1861. The dish became a defining feature of the English institutional meal, the school dinner and the hospital tray, and the skin, prized or loathed, was always its mark. The 20th century saw it tin-canned by Ambrosia and others, but the home-baked version remains the standard.

Soft, starchy grains suspended in sweet, faintly nutmeggy milk, the whole thick and comforting, with the prized leathery golden skin on top that splits to reveal the cream beneath. Eaten warm, plain.

The pudding relies on the slow release of starch from short-grain pudding rice, a low-amylose variety that softens and thickens the milk without breaking down to mush. Baked uncovered at a low temperature, around 150 degrees C, for two hours, the rice absorbs the milk gradually while the surface dehydrates and browns into the prized skin, a film of coagulated milk proteins and caramelised sugar. Stirring destroys the skin, so the dish is left entirely alone. A knob of butter and a grating of nutmeg go on top before baking. Full-fat milk is essential, skimmed milk yields a thin, watery result, and many add a little cream for richness. The dish thickens further on standing.