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Cream, Caramel
Take a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar; put it into a pan with three table-spoonfuls of water, set it on the fire until it becomes burnt brown and tastes rather bitter. Have ready a quarter of a pint of boiling cream, and pour it into the sugar. Strain it through a fine sieve into a basin, and let it cool a little. Take six yolks of eggs and mix with the cream, put it into a stewpan over the fire, and whisk it till it becomes thick, but do not let it boil. Now put it back into the basin, add half an ounce of warm melted isinglass; stir with a wooden spoon or whisk till nearly cold. Have ready a pint of whipped cream to mix with it, sweeten to taste, and immediately pour it into a mould. Probable cost, 1s.
This is a caramel bavarian cream — a caramel custard lightened with whipped cream and set with isinglass. The hinge is the caramel: it must go dark enough to taste faintly bitter, or the finished cream will read as sweet and vaguely eggy rather than caramel.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone; ordinary granulated sugar is the equivalent. A quarter of a pound is about half a cup.
- Imperial liquid measuresThe book's pint is 20 fl oz, so a quarter pint of cream is 5 fl oz (a scant ⅔ cup). The "pint of whipped cream" is ambiguous: it may mean a pint of cream before whipping or a pint of cream already whipped. Use heavy or double cream throughout.
- Cooking the caramelSugar and water go to a dark amber that smells nutty and tastes slightly bitter — around 340-350F. Take it off the heat before pouring in the boiling cream, and expect it to bubble up and steam violently; stand back and stir until it smooths out.
- Hot cream, warmed yolksThe caramel cream should cool only "a little" before the yolks go in, then the mixture is thickened over the heat without boiling. Aim for 175-180F, where it coats a spoon; past 185F the yolks curdle. A bowl over simmering water is more forgiving than direct heat.
- IsinglassIsinglass is fish-bladder gelatin, still sold for clearing beer but no longer a kitchen staple. Half an ounce is a substantial set; powdered or leaf gelatin will do the same job, though the strengths are not exactly interchangeable and the original quantity should be treated as approximate rather than converted precisely.
- Folding and the point of no returnThe gelatinised custard must be stirred until nearly cold but still fluid, then the whipped cream folded in and the mould filled at once — hence "immediately." If the base sets before the cream goes in, the mixture goes lumpy.
- MouldingChill at least four hours, preferably overnight. To turn out, dip the mould briefly in hot water and invert onto a cold plate.
- YieldServes six to eight; a large mould is needed. The "probable cost, 1s." is a Victorian shilling, one of the probable costs Cassell's gives throughout.
This is the caramel version of a crème bavaroise — a cooked egg custard set with gelatin and lightened with whipped cream — a form that ran through nineteenth-century English and French pastry work under the loose English heading of "cream" in mould. Burnt sugar was a flavouring a cook could make from the store cupboard, and it doubled as colouring for soups and gravies. The isinglass is the period marker: imported chiefly from Russian sturgeon and sold in shreds or sheets, it was the standard setting agent for jellies and moulded creams before packeted powdered gelatine became cheap and reliable. A mould like this would have gone on the table as one of several sweet dishes rather than a single dessert.