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Other Sweet Dishes: Bavarian
ORANGE MARMALADE BAVARIAN CREAM 1/4 package of gelatine (scant 1 cup of orange marmalade measure) 1 tablespoonful of lemon juice 1/4 cup of cold water 1 cup of double cream Soften the gelatine in the cold water and dissolve over hot water; add the marmalade and fold in the cream, beaten firm. Turn into a mold lined with paper. Strawberry preserves may be used in the same way. GINGER BAVARIAN CREAM Stem ginger root, cut in slices 1/4 cup of cold water or figures 1 cup of rich milk 1/2 cup of preserved ginger, Yolks of 2 eggs chopped and pounded in a 1/3 cup of sugar mortar with ginger syrup 1 cup of double cream, beaten 1 tablespoonful of granulated firm gelatine The "stem" ginger root (preserved in earthen jars) is the best. Use the slices or figures to decorate the bottom of the mold. Soak the gelatine in the cold water. Beat the yolks, add the sugar and cook in the milk, scalded over hot water; add the soaked gelatine and the pounded ginger and stir over ice-water until it begins to set, then fold in the cream.
CARAMEL BAVARIAN CREAM 1/4 box of gelatine 1/2 cup of boiling water 1/4 cup of cold water 1/2 cup of chopped almonds 2/3 cup of sugar 1 1/2 cups of double cream Soak the gelatine in the cold water. Cook the sugar to caramel; add the boiling water and let simmer to a syrup; add the softened gelatine and the nuts; set into ice water and stir until beginning to set; fold in the cream, beaten firm. When the mixture will hold its shape, turn into a mold. For a more elaborate dish, line the mold with ladyfingers. When unmolded decorate with a cup of cream, beaten stiff, and slices of candied cherries. Set the cream in place with pastry bag and star tube.
II CUSTARDS AND CUSTARD MIXTURES In custard mixtures (egg, milk or other liquid, sugar, etc.), as in all egg cookery, the temperature at which the cooking is done largely determines the character of the finished dish. When the mixture is not to be stirred during cooking, set to cook on many folds of paper, surround with water at the boiling point, and let cook in the oven, or, covered, on top of the range. Do not allow the water to boil during the cooking, as the custard will be spoiled. The mixture is cooked when firm in the center. One egg to a cup of milk makes a fairly rich custard, but the custard should be eaten from the dish in which it is cooked. By the use of two eggs, or preferably one egg and two yolks (on account of tenderness that the fat in the yolks gives), a custard firm enough to be turned from the dish in perfect shape is assured. Starchy ingredients, as cornstarch, rice, tapioca, bread or cake crumbs, may be used in the place of the second egg. Half an ounce of rice or tapioca (uncooked), or one whole ounce of cake or bread crumbs are needed to each cup of milk. As high temperature or time is essential to the proper cooking of starchy ingredients, rice, tapioca, corn-starch and the like should be cooked before the egg is added. When the hot custard mixture or pudding is to be turned from the mold, the matter is simplified, if the dish be buttered thoroughly and then dredged liberally with sugar. A mold lined with caramel insures perfect unmolding of the custard or pudding and at the same time provides a sauce for the dish. A tin mold of good quality is the best in using a caramel lining. Cook the required quantity of sugar to caramel over a quick fire. At once turn the caramel into the mold and with a towel held in both hands take up the mold (which will be very hot) and turn it round slowly, that the caramel may coat the entire inner surface of the mold. The mold may be used at once or at some future time.
A soft, or "boiled," custard should always be cooked in a double boiler. Whole eggs may be used for this form of custard, but as the yolks give the best results, the whites are usually reserved for some other dish. If the whites are used, beat them dry and fold into the mixture after the yolks and sugar have been cooked in the milk. Have the milk scalded. Beat the yolks, then add the sugar and beat again; add a little of the hot milk, mix all together thoroughly, then pour into the rest of the hot milk. Stir constantly until the mixture coats the spoon; add the whites, if they are to be used, and at once strain into a cold dish, to arrest the cooking.
Three cold gelatine creams followed by the author's general notes on custard. The measurements assume a 1909 pantry, and two of the terms — "double cream" and "1/4 box of gelatine" — need translating before anything will set.
- The gelatine measureA box or package of gelatine then generally held one ounce, reckoned in quarter-ounce portions; a quarter box is roughly one modern envelope (7 g, about 2 1/4 teaspoons). The ginger recipe's tablespoonful of granulated gelatine is in the same neighbourhood, if a little more.
- Double creamIn American books of this date "double cream" means cream rich enough to whip, i.e. today's heavy or whipping cream. Beat it only until it holds its shape; over-whipped cream will not fold smoothly into a setting gelatine base and leaves streaks.
- The hinge: fold at the right momentThe ginger and caramel creams both depend on chilling the gelatine base over ice water until it just begins to thicken, then folding in the cream (the marmalade cream gives no such direction). Fold too early and the cream tends to float to the top in a separate layer; too late and the base seizes into lumps you cannot smooth out.
- Lining the mold with paperCut a round of parchment for the bottom and a strip for the side. Modern practice is to film the mold with a neutral oil instead, or to dip the unmolded shape briefly in warm water; either works better than paper for a fluted mold.
- Stem gingerStem ginger preserved in syrup, sold in jars, is still widely available in supermarkets and Asian groceries. What the author meant by "figures" is not explained in the text; neat slices will do. Chop and mash the ginger with a little of its own syrup rather than pounding in a mortar.
- Custard temperatureThe stirred custard for the ginger cream is done when it coats the spoon, roughly 170–175°F; carried much beyond that it curdles. Straining it at once into a cold bowl, as the text says, is what stops the carryover cooking.
- The oven for baked custardsThe general notes call for a water bath that must never boil, and give no temperature. In a modern oven that is usually taken as a moderate 325°F, with the pan of hot water reaching halfway up the dish; the folds of paper under the dish serve the same purpose as a folded towel or rack today.
- Caramel and a "quick fire"Quick fire means high heat — cook the sugar to a deep amber, then stand back when the boiling water goes in, as it will spit violently. For the caramel Bavarian, let the caramel and water simmer down to a syrup, as directed, before the softened gelatine goes in.
- YieldThis is a book for two. Each cream makes something over two cups of mixture — a small mold, two to four modest servings; halving is awkward with gelatine, so it is easier to make the full quantity in individual ramekins and keep them a day or two chilled.
Cooking for Two came out of the Boston Cooking School circle in the first decade of the twentieth century, when gelatine had recently shifted from a laborious kitchen production — hooves and calves' feet boiled down for hours — to a granulated commercial powder sold in boxes. That shift is what made the Bavarian cream, a cold set custard lightened with whipped cream, a plausible dish for a small household rather than a professional pastry kitchen. The name is generally traced to French bavarois, a nineteenth-century restaurant preparation whose connection to Bavaria itself has never been convincingly explained. The variations here are characteristic of the period's economy: a cup of marmalade or a jar of preserved ginger from the store cupboard does the work of a whole flavouring operation, and the ladyfinger-lined mold finished with piped cream and candied cherries is the domestic version of a charlotte russe, often said to have been a showpiece of the American dinner table of the period.