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CHARLOTTE (a la St. Denis)
Ornament an oval Charlotte mould with cut cherries, angelica, and small fancy slices of apple, until the mould is covered, then line thickly with maraschino jelly. Pass some preserved peaches through a fine sieve, whip half a pint of cream, mix together with a little grated cocoa-nut, sweeten, add half an ounce of leaf gelatine soaked and melted, pour into the mould and put away into a cold place. When needed, turn out and garnish with slices of pine-apple Probable cost, 2s.
A moulded cream in the charlotte russe family, set with gelatine and lined with jelly rather than sponge fingers. Nothing in it is difficult, but the order of work decides whether it survives being turned out.
- Line the mould in stagesThe hinge of the dish: chill the mould hard, run in a thin film of liquid jelly and let it set, press the cherries, angelica and apple slices into it, then flood with more jelly a little at a time so the decoration is locked in place. Pouring the whole lining at once floats the ornament off the walls.
- Half a pint of creamAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups or 285 ml. Whip it to soft peaks only; stiffly whipped cream will not fold smoothly into a fruit purée and leaves streaks.
- Half an ounce of leaf gelatineAbout 14 g, or roughly seven modern 2 g leaves. That is a firm set by current standards, and deliberately so, since the charlotte has to stand unsupported on a dish. Soak the leaves in cold water, squeeze, melt gently, and stir a little of the fruit mixture into the warm gelatine before combining the two, or it will set in threads.
- AngelicaThe candied green stem of Angelica archangelica, sold in strips by confectioners and still available from cake-decorating suppliers. Candied citron peel or thin strips of candied kiwi stand in for the colour if angelica cannot be had.
- Maraschino jellyA clear sweetened jelly flavoured with maraschino liqueur, set with gelatine or isinglass. Made today, something in the region of 5-6 g of gelatine per 250 ml of liquid will give a lining firm enough to hold at the edges; add the liqueur off the heat, since heat drives off both alcohol and aroma.
- Cocoa-nutFreshly grated coconut flesh, not the dried sweetened shred sold now. Desiccated unsweetened coconut soaked briefly in a spoonful of cream is closer to the original texture; sweetened shred will make the cream cloying next to the peaches.
- Setting time and turning outGive it at least six hours in the refrigerator, better overnight. To unmould, dip the tin for three or four seconds in hot water, wipe it, and invert onto a chilled dish; longer than that and the jelly lining slumps.
- Yield and costOval charlotte moulds varied in size; the quantities here (half a pint of cream plus the peach purée) suggest a mould of roughly a pint to a pint and a half, giving four to six small servings. "Probable cost, 2s." is the book's own costing for the whole dish in contemporary money, not a serving price.
The charlotte mould and its cold cream filling descend from the charlotte russe, generally traced to Antonin Carême in the early nineteenth century, who is said to have set a bavarian cream inside a wall of sponge fingers and named it in the Russian manner. By the time Cassell's was compiling its dictionary, the form had multiplied into many variants distinguished largely by their linings and flavourings, often carrying a place or saint's name; what à la St. Denis was meant to signify here is not recorded. What the entry does record is the late-Victorian ease with gelatine: cheap sheet gelatine was by then widely available alongside the older calf's-foot and isinglass jellies, and an ambitious household cook could build an architectural cold sweet, mirror-bright and studded with candied fruit, with no more equipment than a tin mould and a cold larder.