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Angel's Food Cream
Dissolve half box gelatine, in one quart milk, beat together the yolks of three eggs, one cup sugar, juice of one lemon, stir it into the gelatine and milk, and let it just come to a boil, in a farina kettle; when nearly done strain, whip the whites of the eggs stiff, and stir through the custard; pour into the moulds and set near the ice to cool, flavor with vanilla.
A gelatine-set custard in the Bavarian cream family, written for a cook who already knew how to handle both. Two things need translating: the gelatine measure and the phrase "just come to a boil."
- Half a box of gelatinePeriod boxes were not standardized, but a box of about an ounce is the usual reading, which makes half a box roughly a half-ounce — about two modern envelopes, or 4½ teaspoons. That is in the right range to set a quart of liquid into something that will unmould and still be tender.
- Soften it firstSprinkle the gelatine over about a cup of the cold milk and let it stand ten minutes before heating. Dropping dry granules into warm milk gives you rubbery threads that no amount of straining wholly removes.
- A farina kettle is a double boilerA lined inner pan set over water, used for cereal. It exists here to keep the custard off direct heat.
- "Just come to a boil" is not a boilWith three yolks in a quart of milk, an actual boil will scramble the custard. Take it to 175–180F, when it coats the back of a spoon and a drawn finger leaves a clean track, then pull it off the heat.
- The lemon juiceAcid plus milk plus heat is how you make curds. Stir the lemon juice in off the heat at the end, along with the vanilla, rather than into the raw yolk mixture as written — heat also drives off most of the vanilla's aroma.
- Folding in the whitesThey are stirred through hot custard and never cooked separately. Fold them in while the custard is still near 175F and the mixture is only beginning to thicken; if you want certainty, use pasteurized whites, since three whites folded into a quart of custard may not reach a safe temperature on residual heat alone.
- Setting"Near the ice" means the cold part of the icebox. Rinse the moulds with cold water and do not dry them, then chill four to six hours, or overnight. To turn out, dip the mould a few seconds in warm water.
- YieldA quart of milk plus eggs and sugar gives roughly six to eight servings. It is rich; small moulds suit it better than one large one.
The name borrows from angel food cake, which spread through American cookbooks in the 1870s and 1880s and is generally said to have taken its name from being pale, light and made largely with whites. This dessert is really a Bavarian cream — an egg custard set with gelatine and lightened with beaten whites — dressed in a fashionable name. Its appearance in a household book of this period reflects how much easier gelatine had become: what once meant boiling down calves' feet for hours could by then be bought ready-made, which is why the recipe can say "half box" at all.