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Ginger Cream
Cut four ounces of preserved ginger into thin slices. Put the yolks of three fresh eggs into a saucepan, with a pint of milk and two table-spoonfuls of the syrup. Let it boil gently, stirring all the time, till the cream is thick and smooth. Strain it into a basin, add one gill of cream and three-quarters of an ounce of gelatine dissolved in a little milk. Whisk it until it thickens, pour it into a damped mould, and put in a cool place until set. Time, four hours or more to set the cream. Probable cost, 3s. 2d., with cream at 1s. 6d. per pint. Sufficient for two pints and a half of cream.
A Victorian moulded custard set with gelatine, the ancestor of the gelatine "creams" that dominated dessert courses for decades. Two things in the wording need attention before you start: the ginger is never actually put back in, and the custard should not really boil.
- The sliced gingerThe recipe cuts four ounces of preserved ginger and then never mentions it again. Fold most of the slices into the custard once it has cooled and begun to thicken, so they stay suspended rather than sinking, and reserve a few for the top after turning out.
- Do not let the custard boil"Let it boil gently" is the period formula for a stirred custard, but three yolks in a pint of milk will curdle at a simmer. Hold it at 175-180F, stirring, until it coats the spoon; the straining step in the original will catch any threads that do form.
- Preserved gingerThis is stem ginger in heavy syrup, sold in jars and still widely available. Crystallised ginger is not a substitute here because the recipe also needs two tablespoons of the syrup; if you only have crystallised, make a syrup from sugar and water and steep the ginger in it.
- A gillA quarter of an imperial pint, 5 imperial fl oz (about two-thirds of a US cup). Use heavy or double cream.
- The gelatineThree-quarters of an ounce is about 21 g, a firm Victorian set intended to stand up unmoulded on a dish. Modern refined gelatine may well set more firmly weight for weight, so 12-15 g should hold the shape without rubberiness. Bloom it in cold milk first, then warm gently to dissolve, and never boil it.
- Whisking as it thickensWhisk over a bowl of iced water so the mixture cools evenly. Pour into the mould while it still flows freely, or the aerated texture will trap air pockets.
- The mouldThe recipe specifies a damped mould rather than an oiled one, which helps the set cream release cleanly. Dip the filled mould briefly in warm water and invert onto a wetted plate so you can slide the cream into position.
- Setting and yieldFour hours is the recipe's own estimate; overnight in a refrigerator is safer for reliability. Note that the stated "two pints and a half" does not follow from the ingredients, which amount to roughly a pint and a quarter, so plan for a smaller mould than that figure suggests.
Ginger cream belongs to the long English family of moulded "creams" — lemon, coffee, chocolate, almond — that filled the sweet course of middle-class dinners once cheap refined gelatine and commercial isinglass substitutes are generally thought to have come onto the market around the middle of the nineteenth century. The point of the entry is the method, a stirred egg custard stiffened with gelatine and lightened with cream, which the reader was expected to vary by flavouring. The ginger itself came from China, shipped in stoneware jars of syrup, and preserved Canton ginger is often said to have been a familiar grocer's luxury in Britain from the eighteenth century onward. The careful costing at the end, down to the price of cream per pint, is characteristic of Cassell's and of a period when a household cook was answerable to a mistress reviewing the accounts.