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Raspberry Cream
Pick one pint of raspberries. Bruise them well, and put them into a saucepan with three table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar. Let them boil quickly till the juice flows freely, and strain it off for use. If fresh fruit cannot be had, dissolve as much raspberry jelly as will make a third of a pint, or mix half a pound of raspberry jam with two table-spoonfuls of water, and strain off the juice. Soak an ounce of gelatine for an hour, and stir it over the fire with three-quarters of a pint of milk till it is dissolved. When this is cool add the raspberry juice, two table-spoonfuls of brandy, and a little sugar if necessary. Whip half a pint of cream, add gelatine and juice, and pour into a mould which has been soaked in cold water, and put in a cool place till it is set. Turn it out carefully just before serving, or, if preferred, serve it in glasses. Time, a quarter of an hour to boil the isinglass in the milk. Probable cost, 4s.
A moulded raspberry cream of the standard Victorian type: fruit juice, sweetened milk set with gelatine, lightened with whipped cream. The one thing that will sink it is temperature — fold the gelatine mixture in when it is cool but still fluid, or it will seize into threads in the cream.
- Gelatine quantityVictorian sheet gelatine and isinglass were generally weaker than modern powdered gelatine, though strengths varied by grade. About 4 teaspoons (roughly 1/2 oz / 14 g) of modern powder should be enough for this volume of liquid; a full ounce is likely to give a rubbery, sliceable block rather than a cream.
- Isinglass and gelatineThe recipe says gelatine in the method and isinglass in the timing note; on this page the two words are used loosely, as though interchangeable. Isinglass is a gelatine made from dried fish swim bladders, chiefly sturgeon; ordinary leaf or powdered gelatine is the direct substitute.
- Imperial measuresA pint here is 20 fl oz, so three-quarters of a pint of milk is 15 fl oz and half a pint of cream is 10 fl oz. A third of a pint of jelly is a scant 7 fl oz.
- Soaking and dissolvingSoak the gelatine in a little of the cold milk until swollen, then warm it with the rest of the milk, stirring, only until fully dissolved. It does not need to boil for a quarter of an hour, and boiled milk will taint the flavour.
- Cream to soft peaksWhip to soft, drooping peaks only. Stiff cream will not fold into the gelatine mixture evenly and leaves white streaks and pockets of firm jelly.
- Setting"A cool place" meant a larder. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, and preferably overnight, for a mould that will turn out cleanly.
- Turning outRinsing the mould with cold water helps release, but a brief dip of the base in hot water and a firm shake is more reliable. Serving it in glasses, as the recipe allows, avoids the problem entirely.
- Yield and costMakes about 1 1/2 pints of set cream — six to eight portions. "Probable cost, 4s" is a household budgeting figure of the book's own period and has no modern equivalent worth converting.
Moulded creams like this one sit at the end of a long English line of "flummeries" and "blancmanges" — sweetened, thickened dairy set in a shape and turned out at table. Until the nineteenth century the setting agent was calves'-foot jelly or isinglass, both of which meant hours of work or an expensive imported ingredient; commercially packaged sheet gelatine, which is generally thought to have spread through British kitchens over the course of the century, is what made a dish like this a routine family sweet rather than a set-piece. The alternative instructions for jelly or jam are a plain acknowledgement that raspberries have a short season while a moulded cream was wanted all year.