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Charlotte-Russe (Split two dozen lady-fingers)
Split two dozen lady-fingers (slices of sponge or other cake may be used), lay them in a mold, put one-third of a box of gelatine into half pint of milk, place it where it will be warm enough to dissolve. Whip three pints of cream to a froth, and keep it cool. beat the yolks of three eggs, and mix with half pound powdered sugar, then beat the whites very stiff, and add to it, strain the gelatine upon these, stirring quickly; then add the cream, flavor with vanilla or lemon, pour over the cake, let stand upon ice two hours. Serve with whipped cream. Some add a layer of jelly at bottom of mold.-Mrs. Ida M. Donaldson, Springdale, Col.
This is a gelatine Bavarian cream poured into a ladyfinger-lined mold — and the egg mixture is never heated at any point. The notes below explain the problem and clarify the period measurements.
- The eggs are never cookedThree yolks and three stiff-beaten whites are folded in raw, and the only "setting" is warm dissolved gelatine and two hours on ice. Nothing in the method comes near a temperature that would deal with Salmonella, and the filling is then held cold and eaten cold.
- Warm gelatine does not pasteurize anythingGelatine dissolves at temperatures well below the range in which egg proteins are made safe. Straining it "upon these, stirring quickly" is a texture instruction, not a heat step — the small volume of warm milk is quickly lost in the mass of sugar, three pints of cream and the beaten whites.
- Volume works against itThis is a large mold — three pints of whipped cream plus beaten whites and a raw yolk-and-sugar mixture. A mass that size chills slowly from the outside in, so the interior is likely to sit for some time in the range where bacteria multiply before it is cold through, let alone set.
- Raw whites in a set dessertUncooked beaten whites carry the same risk as the yolks and, unlike a batter or a baked cake, they are never subsequently cooked. If you want a charlotte russe, use a current recipe built on a cooked custard base or pasteurized eggs.
- "A box of gelatine" is ambiguousNineteenth-century gelatine came in boxes of thin sheets or papers, often reckoned at roughly an ounce in total, though sizes varied by maker; on that reading one-third of a box is about a third of an ounce, in the neighbourhood of a modern envelope. The exact strength of the period product is not recoverable, which is one reason this quantity should not simply be transposed.
- Lady-fingers and the moldSplit ladyfingers were customarily stood upright around a plain charlotte mold or straight-sided bowl to form a wall; the recipe also permits substituting "slices of sponge or other cake."
- The jelly layerIf the dessert is turned out, the optional "layer of jelly at bottom of mold" becomes the glossy top.
The charlotte russe is generally traced to the French pastry cook Antonin Carême in the early nineteenth century, and the name is traditionally explained as a compliment to Tsar Alexander I of Russia; it grew out of the older apple charlotte, a hot pudding lined with buttered bread rather than a cold cream lined with biscuit. By the time Buckeye Cookery appeared in 1877, commercially boxed gelatine was available, though a molded cream still depended on a reliable supply of ice. The attribution to Mrs. Ida M. Donaldson of Springdale, Colorado, is typical of the book, which was assembled from named contributions sent in by women across the Midwest and West.</br>