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Velvet Cream
Dissolve half an ounce of isinglass in a quarter of a pint of water. Add a large wine-glassful of sherry, a table-spoonful of lemon-juice, and six ounces of lump sugar which have been well rubbed upon the rind of a large fresh lemon. Stir the mixture over the fire until the sugar is entirely dissolved. Let the preparation get cold, and before it begins to stiffen mix with it a pint of cream. Pour it into a mould which has been soaked in cold water. Let it stand all night in a cool place, and turn it out upon a glass dish. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. Sufficient for a pint and a half of cream.
A set cream in the older sense: a moulded, sliceable dessert rather than anything whipped. The whole recipe turns on getting the gelling agent right and adding the cream at the correct temperature.
- Isinglass to gelatineIsinglass is dried fish swim-bladder, sold in leaves or shreds and rarely stocked today; powdered or leaf gelatine replaces it. Half an ounce of isinglass is about 14 g, but its setting strength was variable and generally weaker than modern gelatine, so start nearer 10-11 g of gelatine for the volume here and expect a soft, spoonable set rather than a rubbery one.
- The wine-glassfulA wine-glassful in Victorian cookery books is conventionally about 2 fl oz (60 ml), not the capacity of a modern glass; the 'large' here probably means a little more, so allow 2-3 fl oz. A quarter of a pint of water is 5 imperial fl oz, about 140 ml.
- Rubbing the sugar on the rindThis is the single step worth keeping exactly as written. Dragging lump sugar over the lemon skin strips the oil from the zest into the sugar and gives a perfume no juice or grated zest matches. If you use caster sugar instead, rub the zest into it with your fingers and let it sit twenty minutes before dissolving.
- HeatWarm only until the sugar and isinglass are dissolved. Boiling weakens gelatine's set and drives off the sherry and lemon oil, which are the whole flavour of the dish.
- The hinge: adding the creamThe gelatine base must be cold but still fluid. Add cream to a hot base and the mixture is thin and may split; add it once the base has begun to stiffen and you get threads of set jelly through the cream. Aim for a base at cool room temperature, stir the cold cream in steadily, and pour at once.
- The cream itselfA pint here is 20 imperial fl oz, about 570 ml. Use double or heavy cream, unwhipped and straight from the fridge; single cream or half-and-half will not carry the richness the recipe assumes.
- Mould and unmouldingSoaking the mould in cold water is the pre-refrigeration trick for release; a light film of flavourless oil works as well. To turn out, dip the mould in warm water for a few seconds, loosen the top edge, and invert onto a wetted dish so you can slide the cream into position.
- YieldThe book's line 'Sufficient for a pint and a half of cream' most likely means the isinglass base will set up to that quantity, though the finished mixture here comes out at roughly the same volume, about 850 ml, serving six to eight. It needs to stand all night in a cool place, as stated.
Isinglass, made from the swim bladders of sturgeon and other fish, was a favoured setting agent in Victorian kitchens, cleaner in flavour than calf's-foot jelly; it was also used to fine wine and beer, which is why it turns up in grocers' lists as often as in cookbooks. A "cream" in books of this kind commonly meant a moulded dessert built on cream and a gelling agent, sitting alongside blancmanges, charlottes and jellies on the sweet course of a dinner table, and sherry and lemon are a common flavouring for such things. The instruction to rub lump sugar on the lemon rind is an old confectioner's method for capturing citrus oil, the same principle behind the oleo-saccharum used in punches. The "Probable cost" and "Sufficient for" lines are a standing habit of the volume, giving a price against which household spending could be judged.