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Whipped Cream, Lemon
Rasp the rind of two large lemons on a piece of sugar, and as the sugar imbibes it, scrape it off into a basin with some cream, whip it up, and send it to table. It is improved if set on ice or placed in a refrigerator for some time before sending to table. Orange cream is made in the same way.
A two-line recipe that assumes you know what cream should look like when it is done. The only real technique here is the sugar-rasping, which is worth doing properly because it is the whole flavour of the dish.
- Rasping on sugarBefore zesters, cooks rubbed a whole lemon against a piece of hard loaf sugar, which abraded the peel and absorbed the oil at the same time. With modern granulated sugar, rub the lemons on the fine holes of a box grater over a bowl of sugar, then work the zest and sugar together with your fingers until the sugar is damp and yellow. Letting it stand a few minutes draws out more oil.
- Unstated quantitiesNeither the cream nor the sugar is measured. For two large lemons, 2 cups (500 ml) of heavy or whipping cream and 3 to 4 tablespoons of sugar gives a balanced result; the original assumes the cook tastes and adjusts.
- Use unwaxed fruitOnly the outer coloured layer carries the oil, and commercial citrus is usually waxed and often treated. Scrub well with hot water, or buy unwaxed lemons, and stop grating before you reach the white pith, which is bitter.
- No juiceThe recipe uses rind only. Lemon juice added to cream before whipping can make it thicken and curdle. If you want tartness, fold a little juice in after the cream holds its shape and serve promptly.
- Cream that will whipAnything under about 30 per cent butterfat will not hold. Look for heavy cream, whipping cream or double cream; single cream, half-and-half and most "light" creams are wasted here. Ultra-pasteurised cream whips but takes longer and holds less well.
- Cold everythingThe instruction to set it on ice is not just for serving. Cold cream, a cold bowl and cold beaters whip faster and to a firmer foam. Twenty minutes in the freezer for the bowl and whisk makes a visible difference.
- Stop at soft peaksWhip until the cream just holds a peak that slumps slightly at the tip. Past that point the fat globules begin to coalesce and you are on the way to butter, which cannot be reversed.
- Yield and servingTwo cups of cream roughly doubles in volume and serves six as an accompaniment to poached fruit, sponge cake or a plain tart. It will sit an hour or two in the refrigerator but weeps if held longer; re-whisk lightly before serving.
- The orange versionOrange zest is milder and less sharp than lemon, so adjust the number of fruit and the sugar to taste. The same method suits lime and grapefruit.
The odd-sounding instruction to rasp the peel onto a lump of sugar is a survival from the era of the sugar loaf, when refined sugar came as a dense conical block that had to be broken up with nippers before use. A hard loaf made an excellent grater for citrus, and rubbing fruit against it captured the volatile oils in the sugar at the moment they were released, before they could evaporate. Cookery writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries recommended it for creams, custards, punches and cakes alike, and it is really a flavouring technique dressed up as a dish. Flavoured whipped creams of this kind filled the same role at Victorian tables that they do now, softening a plain cake or a compote of stewed fruit.