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Rose Cream
Boil a pint of milk, sweeten it, and flavour with a table-spoonful of rose brandy. Drop into it while boiling the whites of four eggs in separate table-spoonfuls. Turn these over once or twice in the hot milk till they are just set, then lift them carefully out, and put them on a sieve to drain. Make a custard with the yolks of the eggs and the milk, and stir this over the fire till it begins to thicken. An additional pint of milk may be added or not. Put it into a custard-bowl, and when it is cold lay the poached egg-whites upon it. Sprinkle "hundreds and thousands" over these, or lay upon them candied peel cut into shreds, and then serve. Time to poach the egg-whites, half a minute. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for three or four persons.
This is œufs à la neige under an English name: meringue poached in milk, floated on the custard made from the leftover yolks. Nothing here is difficult, but the custard step is unforgiving.
- The hinge: the custard must not boilYolks set at around 180F, and the mixture will curdle a few degrees above that. Stir constantly over a low heat or in a bain-marie until it coats the back of a spoon, then pull it off and strain it into the cold bowl at once. The residual heat in the pan will keep cooking it if you leave it there.
- Rose brandyA Victorian storecupboard flavouring: brandy infused with rose petals, usually made at home. Rosewater with a splash of brandy is the closest modern stand-in, and rosewater is likely stronger than the old infusion — start with half a teaspoon and taste.
- Poaching the whitesThe whites need whipping to a firm meringue first; unbeaten whites will not hold a spoon shape, though the recipe never says so. The recipe allows half a minute in all, turning once or twice; milk held just below a simmer rather than at a full boil is easier to manage.
- The second pint of milkThe instruction to add another pint "or not" is a choice between a pouring sauce and a thicker custard. One pint of milk to four yolks gives a proper custard; two pints gives something closer to thin cream. Sugar is unspecified — about 2 oz (60 g) for the pint suits.
- Hundreds and thousandsThe same tiny nonpareil sprinkles sold today. Add them just before serving, since they bleed colour into damp meringue.
- DrainingThe sieve matters. Milk clinging to the whites will thin the custard beneath them and make the surface weep. Give them ten minutes on a rack or sieve before assembling.
- Cost and yieldOne shilling, for three or four. It scales cleanly: two eggs and half a pint of milk for two people.
The English name conceals a French technique — œufs à la neige, snow eggs, poached meringue on custard, recorded in French cookery from the eighteenth century and generally grouped with the floating island. The Victorian contribution is the flavouring and the finish: rose brandy, a home-infused cordial of the sort kept in a stoppered bottle alongside orange-flower water and ratafia, and "hundreds and thousands", cheap coloured nonpareils. The recipe's real logic is thrift: four whites make the garnish, four yolks make the custard beneath them, and nothing is wasted.