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Ratafia, Iced
Soak an ounce of gelatine in a little water for half an hour. Beat the yolks of three eggs with half a pint of milk; add the grated rind of a lemon or of a Seville orange, four ounces of ratafias, two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a glassful of brandy. Stir the mixture over the fire till it thickens, rub it through a fine sieve, and mix with it the gelatine dissolved in milk, and two or three ounces of candied fruit cut into thin slices. Add a quarter of a pint of thick cream, and beat the mixture thoroughly. Put it in a damp mould, set it on ice, and when set turn it out carefully. Time to thicken the custard, ten to fifteen minutes. Sufficient for rather less than a quart. Probable cost, 2s.
A moulded gelatine cream flavoured with almond biscuits and brandy — Victorian cold-sweet territory, and it works, provided you treat the custard and the gelatine as separate problems.
- What ratafias areRatafia biscuits are small, dry, almond-flavoured macaroons, close to Italian amaretti. Four ounces is about a cup of crushed biscuits; amaretti or plain almond macaroons stand in directly.
- Gelatine quantityAn ounce is far more gelatine than a modern powder needs here. Today's unflavoured gelatine sets a quart firmly at roughly half an ounce (about four teaspoons, or two envelopes); an ounce gives a rubbery, sliceable block rather than a cream.
- Bloom then dissolveSoak the gelatine in a few tablespoons of cold water, then dissolve it in warm milk — not boiling, which weakens the set. Stir it into the sieved custard while both are still warm so it disperses evenly.
- The custard is the hingeYolks with half a pint of milk thicken at about 175-180F. Keep it below a simmer and stir constantly; ten to fifteen minutes is realistic over low heat, but go by the coating-the-spoon test, not the clock. Once it curdles no amount of sieving recovers the texture.
- A glassful of brandyAmbiguous in the original. A Victorian wine glass is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz, which suits the quantity here; more than that and the mixture will taste raw and may loosen the set.
- Cream and folding"Thick cream" means heavy or double cream. Beating it in as instructed gives a dense cream; whipping it lightly and folding it into the cooling custard gives a mousse-like result closer to what a modern cook expects.
- Setting"Set it on ice" means an ice bath or the coldest place available. Four to six hours in the refrigerator does the same job. Damp the mould with cold water rather than oiling it, and dip the base briefly in warm water to release.
- YieldRather less than a quart — six modest servings from a 1-quart mould, or eight small glasses if you prefer not to unmould.
Ratafia began as a drink: a sweetened spirit infused with fruit kernels and almonds, whose name has an unsettled etymology — competing accounts point to the West Indian spirit "tafia" and to the Latin toasting formula "rata fiat" — and which by the eighteenth century meant almost any flavoured cordial. From the liqueur came the biscuit — small hard almond macaroons sold by the tin and used constantly in Victorian confectionery, crushed into creams and charlottes or set around the edge of a mould. This recipe belongs to the great family of nineteenth-century moulded creams that gelatine made possible for ordinary households: once commercial sheet and powdered gelatine replaced the labour of boiling calves' feet, a cook could turn out an elaborate shape from a pint of milk, a few eggs and a handful of biscuits. Cassell's note of "probable cost, 2s." is the point of the entry as much as the method — this was a dish priced for the aspiring middle-class table, where the brandy and candied fruit signalled expense that the milk-and-gelatine base quietly offset.