Pudding of Split Rusks w/ Wine Sauce

“Eat, Drink and Be Merry in Maryland” again. This bread pudding comes care of Mrs. William D. Poultney.

According to the Maryland Historical Society:

“The Poultney family were descendants of Ellen North, said to be the first Anglo-American child born in the area that is now Baltimore. Thomas Poultney, Sr. (1826-1887) was a writer under the name Rabbi Ben Tomi. He married Susan Carroll, daughter of Charles Carroll, and their children included Evan, Thomas Jr., and C. Carroll Poultney. Evan Poultney (d. 1940, age 86) was a founder and the first president of the old Baltimore Club, with an avid interest in amateur theatrics. While attending Harvard University (from which he graduated in 1875), he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, and in Baltimore he supported the Paint and Powder Club.”

I had no idea what the Hasty Pudding Club was but apparently there WAS actual pudding involved. I’m not sure where William Poultney fits into that family but I’m sure that the love of pudding is in their blood.

Mr. Charles Parkhurst, director of the Baltimore Museum of art, chats with Mrs. William D. Poultney, a lender, and Mr. William C. Whitridge, a trustee of the museum, at preview of Maryland furniture of Queen Anne and Chippendale periods. (ebay)

Bread pudding comes in many forms in my household due to the leftover stale baguette segments or other bread leftover from sandwiches. Sweet bread pudding is more rare.
For this pudding I purchased some “rusks” at Punjab. I’ve always seen them there and wondered “what is the deal with ‘rusks’?” Well here is everything you want to know about rusks but didn’t care enough to ask:
Rusks are a twice-baked bread or biscuits. Popular in India for dipping into tea. Rusks are not biscotti but biscotti are maybe rusks? Okay that’s enough.
I wasn’t sure quite how to follow this recipe. Should the whites be mixed in before pouring over the rusks? I don’t know. It turned out okay. I added additional lemon peel on the top which was kind of moronic because it browned in the oven and looked like little dirt pellets.

Pudding will come back to haunt Old Line Plate many times, especially when I undertake some campfire cooking. Pudding is an early American staple and longtime favorite of famously English origin.

For the wine sauce I cross-referenced my Southern Heritage cookbook library as well as a different recipe in EDBMiM and whipped something together. There is never any reason why I would have some extra red wine around my household. However, I was visiting a friend who was trying out this weird non-alcholic red wine recently. No one really liked it so I took it home knowing I would find some use for it in the kitchen. Voila.
The pudding was kind of dry so I kept pouring more milk on it whenever I’d heat up a serving.

Pudding of Split Rusks:

• 16 rusks
• .25 Lb butter
• .25 Lb almonds
• 6 eggs
• sugar
• lemon peel

Pour some boiling milk over sixteen split rusks, then add a quarter pound of butter, a quarter pound of almonds, six eggs, sugar and lemon peel, and lastly add the whites of the eggs beaten to a froth. Bake and serve it up with a wine sauce.

Wine sauce:

“One-quarter pound butter, six large tablespoonsful of brown sugar, one egg, one glass wine (or more). Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add egg and beat until light, put in wine gradually. Cook until thick and nearly boiling.Stir constantly.”