[KYHeirloomer]

Just finished testing a "new" 18th century recipe for a potato pudding. Everything worked out well, except it's a bit on the sweet side for our taste.

I want to adapt it, but have no idea what effect cutting the sugar will have. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here's the recipe:

POTATO PUDDING

1 lb potato
¾ lb butter
½ lb sugar

¾ cup milk or cream
Juice and zest of one lemon
2 tsp nutmeg
4 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
2 tsp rose water

Cook potatoes and mash well.

Cream butter and sugar. Combine with other ingredients.

Transfer mixture to a 1 ½ quart casserole dish. Bake at 350F in home oven or Dutch oven until top is browned and custard is set, about 1 ½ hours.

[swan]

wow, this sounds interesting!
Are you doing more historical dishes? Great!
I would say, though I'm not sure, that you could easily leave 1/4th part of the sugar out without it having much consequences (sp?) to the texture of the dish, maybe even half?
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http://swans-place.blogspot.com
http://jaap-en-mickey.blogspot.com

[KYHeirloomer]

Thanks, Swan.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking: reducing the sugar by about 25%. I wonder, too, what would happen if I upped the lemon juice a bit.

I'm not a baker, and have only a vague idea how changes effect the final dish.

Exploring 18th century foodways is an on-going thing with us. In fact, we were just asked to develop a series of one-day workshops on hearth- and period cooking, to be conducted at Fort Boonesborough during the off-season months.

Nothing is cast in concrete, yet. But what we proposed was one a month, from November through March. Each workshop would be limited to a maximum of 8 people, and we'd charge 35 bucks each---which includes the food. At each session we'll make four dishes, and use different techniques and equipment each time, so if somebody wants to attend more than one it won't be all samee-same.

Kind of exciting, and I can't wait for final approval so we can start planning in detail.

[Donna]

Hi KYH - Strange to see this topic today! This morning, I inadvertently left out the sugar in some corn-cherry scones I made and they tasted just fine! I had cut the sugar in that recipe down by 50%, but today I discovered I don't need it at all!

I routinely cut sugar amounts by 25-50% with only rare problems. Even in cookies, scones or cakes, I haven't had any difficulty.
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L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

[KYHeirloomer]

Thanks Donna. That's good to know.

My concern (and, remember, I really don't understand baking) is that the eggs and sugar are all that support this pudding. There's no flour or other "mortar" to bind everything together.

Guess I'll have to just start cutting back the sugar and see what happens. Poor me, having to have to field test all those mistakes.