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ITALIAN CREAM (another way)
Stir into a pint of thick cream some lumps of sugar which have been used to rub off the rinds of two lemons, and as much more pounded loaf sugar as will sweeten. Whisk up the cream with the juice of one lemon, strain an ounce or more of dissolved isinglass to it, and beat well together. Flavour with noyau or Curacoa, and fill a mould. Freeze, turn out, and garnish with any kind of sweetmeats or preserved fruits. Time, half an hour. Probable cost, 2s. 9d., exclusive of liqueurs. Sufficient for a pint and a half mould. (See also CREAM, ITALIAN.)
A set cream rather than an ice, despite the instruction to "freeze" — the isinglass does the work, and the mould was meant to sit in an ice cave rather than a freezer. Two things decide whether it succeeds: the temperature of the dissolved isinglass and the speed at which the lemon juice goes in.
- Isinglass to gelatinIsinglass is dried fish swim-bladder, sold in leaf or shred form and very variable in setting power. Powdered or leaf gelatin is far stronger by weight; for a pint of cream plus juice, 2 to 3 teaspoons (7-11 g) of powdered gelatin gives a cream that will just stand when turned out. The ounce specified cannot be converted exactly, because Victorian isinglass had no standard strength.
- Add the gelatin warm, not hotDissolved gelatin poured hot into cold cream sets in threads before it disperses. Let it cool to blood heat, strain it in a thin stream while whisking, and stop whisking as soon as it is uniform — the mixture should still pour.
- Lemon juice and creamAcid thickens cream fast. Add the juice of one lemon gradually to lightly whipped cream, or the mixture can turn grainy before the gelatin is in.
- The rubbed sugarRubbing loaf sugar over the zest to soak up the oil is an oleo saccharum. Four or five sugar cubes rubbed hard over two lemons, then crushed, carry more lemon perfume than grated zest and leave no specks. Sweeten to taste from there — around 3 oz (85 g) total sugar suits most palates.
- Noyau and CuraçaoNoyau is a stone-fruit-kernel liqueur with a marzipan character; crème de noyaux or amaretto stands in for it. Keep spirits to about a tablespoon or two, as alcohol weakens a gelatin set.
- "Freeze" means chill"Freeze" -- the book does say freeze, and a mould of this kind would have been packed in ice and salt; the half hour given may well be the freezing time. If you would rather serve it as a set cream than as an ice, cover the mould and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours or overnight -- a gelatine cream taken to solid freezing turns icy and weeps as it thaws.
- Turning outOil the mould very lightly first. To unmould, dip it in warm water for five to ten seconds, dry the outside, and invert onto a chilled plate.
- Yield and costA pint-and-a-half mould serves six to eight. The 2s 9d is the book's own late-nineteenth-century estimate and is of historical interest only.
Italian creams in English cookery books of the nineteenth century have little obvious connection with Italy; the name seems to have attached itself to rich moulded creams flavoured with lemon and a liqueur. What is characteristically Victorian is the setting agent: isinglass, the best grades imported from Russian sturgeon and lower grades from other fish, was a standard clear gelling material for creams and jellies before manufactured leaf and powdered gelatine largely displaced it over the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cassell's habit of quoting a "probable cost" -- here 2s 9d, and pointedly "exclusive of liqueurs" -- suits a readership of middle-class households budgeting a dinner rather than a professional kitchen, and the mould with its garnish of sweetmeats and preserved fruit belongs to an era when a dinner's final course was judged largely on how well it stood up on the dish.