Magic Caramel Pudding (Caramelized Eagle Brand Milk)

Remember awhile back there a thread about boiling Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk in the can to caramelize it?

It’s popular in Mexico. This weekend I picked up ‘MAGIC, the most AMAZING SHORT-CUTS in cooking you ever heard of’.

It’s a proprietary cookbook put out in the late teens or early twenties by the Borden Company. The women all look like Betty Boop’s mother, the stoves all have legs and fridges are referred to as ‘automatic refrigerators’ and have ornate hinges and latches. Seems like way back in 1857 Gail Borden perfected the technique for canning milk and the rest is history. The book presents a series of ‘magic tricks’ and then later has recipes that use the end results of the ‘tricks’. Anyway, one of the first things I ran across was this recipe.

Place one or more unopened cans of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk in a kettle of boiling water and keep at boiling point for three hours, being careful to keep can well covered with water. Chill thoroughly.

Remove from can as follows:

Warm can by immersing in hot water about one minute. Punch a hole in bottom of can, remove top with can-openeer, cutting along the side, just below top edge, starting at seam. Loosen caramel from sides of can with a table knife dipped in hot water.

Turn on to plate. Cut in slices with knife dipped in hot water.

NOTE: If a pressure cooker is used to caramelize the milk use 15 pounds pressure for 50 minutes.

As I write this, I’m still savoring the first taste of the finished product. It has a rich, butterscotchy flavor and is a nice, very light tan color. The texture is like a pudding. This has definite potential!

This is almost as good as chocolate! In fact, I can feature this as being part of fudge.

Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; September 7, 1992.