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CREAM (a la Parisienne)
Dissolve an ounce of isinglass in a pint and a half of hot cream; stir it well, add the juice of half a small lemon, two table-spoonfuls of sifted sugar, and half a pound of good jam--apricot is to be preferred--but none must be used which was not pressed through a sieve at the time it was made. The jam should be added gradually, and the cream stirred till it is nearly cold, or the jam will sink to the bottom. Time: an hour to prepare; twelve hours or more to stiffen. Probable cost, 3s. 10d. Sufficient for a quart mould.
A Victorian moulded cream, set with isinglass rather than gelatine and flavoured with nothing but jam and lemon. The only difficult part is keeping the jam suspended while the cream sets.
- Isinglass to gelatineIsinglass is collagen from fish swim bladders, sold in leaf or shred form and now mainly a brewing fining agent. Powdered gelatine is the practical stand-in: for 30 fl oz of liquid, roughly 3 standard envelopes (about 21 g) gives a mould firm enough to turn out. Bloom it in a little cold water first rather than tipping it into hot cream.
- A pint and a halfImperial measure, so 30 fl oz — about 3½ US cups. The quart mould named at the end is likewise an imperial quart, 40 fl oz, which leaves sensible headroom.
- Do not boil the cream"Hot" means hot enough to dissolve the setting agent, no more. Cream held at a boil with acid from the lemon in it will thicken and curdle, and prolonged high heat weakens gelatine's set.
- Sifted sugarCaster or superfine sugar, sifted to break lumps. Two tablespoons in this quantity is barely sweet on its own; the jam carries most of the sugar.
- The sieved jamThe insistence on jam "pressed through a sieve at the time it was made" is about texture and suspension — fruit fibres and skin settle out. Modern seedless apricot or apricot preserve worked through a sieve, or a smooth fruit purée, does the same job. Warm it slightly so it blends without cooling the cream unevenly.
- The hinge: stir until nearly coldThis is the whole technique. Add the jam a spoonful at a time and keep stirring as the mixture cools to the point of thickening, so the fruit is held in suspension. Stop too early and you get a pale cream with a jam layer at the bottom of the mould.
- Setting and turning outTwelve hours is generous but not wrong for a large mould; refrigerate rather than leaving it in a cool larder. Rinse the mould with cold water before filling, and dip it briefly in warm water to release.
- YieldA quart mould serves six to eight as a rich dessert. Note the stated cost of 3s 10d — expensive for a pudding.
Isinglass was a standard household setting agent through the nineteenth century, more convenient and cleaner-tasting than boiling down calves' feet, though considerably dearer; Russian isinglass, from sturgeon, was the grade cookbooks generally recommended. The recipe belongs to the family of moulded creams related to blancmange and flummery, where a flavoured cream is stiffened just enough to hold the shape of an elaborate copper or tin mould. The "a la Parisienne" label was applied loosely in Victorian British cookery to dishes considered refined and French, and here appears to signal little more than that the cream is fruit-flavoured and served turned out. The assumption that the cook has home-made jam on hand and knows whether it was sieved when made is a household detail that faded as commercial preserves became the norm.