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VELVET CREAM (another way) (Put a pint and a quarter)
Put a pint and a quarter of milk into a saucepan with a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, the thin rind of half a lemon, and an inch of stick cinnamon. Let it simmer till pleasantly flavoured. Put two dessert-spoonfuls of Oswego into a basin, and mix with it four well-beaten eggs. Strain the milk when it is cool into the eggs, and stir the custard over the fire till it begins to thicken, but it must not boil. Stir it off the fire till it is almost cold, add a few drops of vanilla essence, and pour it into a glass dish over spongecakes or ratafias soaked in sherry and covered with jam. Let it stand in a cool situation three or four hours before serving. Time, about twenty minutes to simmer the milk with the flavouring. Probable cost, 2s. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
A stirred custard poured over sherry-soaked sponge — a trifle in all but name. The whole thing turns on not letting the custard boil.
- OswegoOswego was a brand of American cornstarch whose name came to be used in British cookery writing for cornflour generally. Two dessertspoonfuls is roughly four teaspoons of cornstarch, a little over a tablespoon.
- Loaf sugarSugar was sold in hard cones to be broken up and crushed. A quarter pound is about half a cup of ordinary granulated sugar.
- The temperature that matters"Begins to thicken, but it must not boil" corresponds to something like 175-180F on a thermometer. Much hotter and the eggs are apt to curdle, though the Oswego starch here makes the mixture more forgiving than a plain egg custard; pull the pan and keep stirring off the heat as instructed.
- Straining the milk when coolCooling the infused milk before it meets the eggs stops the yolks scrambling on contact. If you are in a hurry, add the warm milk to the eggs a ladleful at a time, whisking, rather than the other way round.
- RatafiasSmall, hard almond macaroons, still sold in Britain as ratafia biscuits. Amaretti are the closest widely available substitute; they behave the same way under sherry.
- Vanilla essencePeriod essences varied a good deal in strength and quality. A teaspoon of good vanilla extract suits the quantity better than "a few drops".
- VolumesA pint and a quarter is 25 imperial fluid ounces, about 700 ml or three US cups. The imperial pint is a fifth larger than the American one.
- Setting and yieldThree or four hours in a cool place means the refrigerator now; overnight is better still, and the sponge absorbs more. Serves six or seven as written.
"Oswego" appears in British cookbooks of the later nineteenth century as a plain synonym for cornflour, after the corn starch works at Oswego, New York, whose product is generally said to have reached England in quantity during the second half of the century — a rare case of an American town name becoming a British pantry staple. The dish itself is a member of the trifle family: sponge or ratafias soaked in sherry, spread with jam, drowned in custard and left to stand. Cassell's places it among the creams rather than the puddings, though it does not say why. The stated cost of two shillings marks it as a respectable middle-class sweet rather than an everyday one, and the instruction to leave it "in a cool situation" is a reminder that the larder, not the icebox, was where such a dish would have been chilled.