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LEMON CREAMS (another way)
Soak one ounce of isinglass for five minutes in half a pint of sherry or Madeira. Dissolve it over the fire, stirring gently all the time. Rub six ounces of loaf sugar on the rind of two large, fresh lemons, and add it, with the strained juice of the lemons, to the hot isinglass. Pour the whole gently into a bowl containing a pint of cream or new milk, stir all together for a short time, then put the liquid into a damp mould. Time, about an hour to prepare. Probable cost, exclusive of the wine, 3s. Sufficient for a quart mould.
A Victorian moulded cream that stands or falls on how the acid meets the dairy. Two substitutions and one temperature check are all it needs.
- IsinglassDried fish swim bladder, historically sturgeon, sold in sheets or shreds and now hard to source for kitchen use, though brewing suppliers still stock it. Replace with leaf or powdered gelatine, which is more consistent in strength: about 14 g (two standard 7 g envelopes, or roughly 7 leaves) will set the 30 fl oz of liquid here to a firm, sliceable cream. Use less for a softer set.
- The hinge: keep the mixture warm but not hot when the lemon meets the creamLemon juice added to a very hot base and then poured onto cold cream is how these creams curdle. Let the sweetened wine-and-gelatine mixture cool to just warm, then pour it into the cream in a slow stream while stirring steadily, rather than tipping it in.
- Imperial measuresHalf a pint of sherry is 10 fl oz, a pint of cream is 20 fl oz, and the quart mould holds 40 fl oz — noticeably larger than US measures. Six ounces of sugar is about 170 g, a scant cup granulated.
- Loaf sugar and the rindLoaf sugar came as a hard cone broken into lumps; sugar cubes are the nearest thing. Rubbing the lump over the zest strips the oil-bearing outer skin, which carries most of the lemon perfume. If using granulated sugar, rub finely grated zest into it with your fingers and let it stand ten minutes.
- New milkFresh whole milk straight from the cow, unskimmed. Whole milk works, but the set will taste thin against the wine; single cream or half-and-half is closer to the intended richness, and double cream gives the classic version.
- TimingAn hour is preparation only. The mould needs four to six hours in the refrigerator, and overnight is safer for a clean turn-out.
- UnmouldingDamping the mould is right, and a metal one unmoulds best. Dip it briefly in hot water, wipe dry, and invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldA quart mould serves eight to ten as a set cream. The wine is only warmed rather than boiled, so most of the alcohol remains; treat it accordingly at the table.
Isinglass was a standard setting agent in English kitchens through much of the nineteenth century, alongside calf's-foot jelly — a gelatine extracted from the swim bladders of sturgeon, imported chiefly from Russia, and used equally by brewers to clarify beer and by cooks to stiffen creams and jellies. It was expensive, which is why this recipe's "probable cost, exclusive of the wine, 3s." was worth printing: three shillings was real money for a dinner-party sweet. Commercially refined powdered gelatine, cheaper and reliably standardised, displaced it from domestic cookery over the following decades, and by the mid-twentieth century isinglass survived mainly in the brewhouse. Moulded creams of this kind belonged to the sweet course of a formal Victorian dinner, turned out onto a dish and served cold alongside jellies and compotes.