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Chocolate Cream
2 cups scalded milk 5 tablespoons corn-starch 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup cold milk 1 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate 3 tablespoons hot water Whites 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla Mix corn-starch, sugar, and salt, dilute with cold milk, add to scalded milk, and cook over hot water ten minutes, stirring constantly until thickened; melt chocolate, add hot water, stir until smooth, and add to cooked mixture; add whites of eggs beaten stiff, and vanilla. Mould, chill, and serve with cream.
A cornstarch pudding of the sort every American cookery school taught around 1900, stretched and lightened with stiff egg whites. The whole thing hangs on cooking the starch long enough over water that never boils hard.
- Cook over hot water"Cook over hot water" means a double boiler: a bowl or upper pan set over simmering water, not sitting in it. Direct heat will scorch a milk-and-starch mixture this thick before the ten minutes are up.
- The ten minutes are realCornstarch thickens within a minute or two but tastes raw and chalky until the starch granules have fully swelled. Keep stirring for the full ten minutes; the mixture should be glossy and coat the spoon heavily.
- Squares of chocolateA "square" of unsweetened chocolate is one ounce, so this calls for 1 1/2 oz. Use a baking bar labelled unsweetened (100 percent cacao), not bittersweet, or the pudding will be cloying at this sugar level.
- Melting with hot waterAdding 3 tablespoons hot water to melted chocolate makes a smooth paste that disperses evenly into the pudding. Use the water hot, as directed, and stir until smooth before adding it to the pudding.
- The egg whitesFolded into the hot base off the heat, the whites are warmed but not brought to a temperature that reliably pasteurizes them. If that matters in your household, use pasteurized whites, or return the pudding to the double boiler for two or three minutes after folding, stirring gently.
- MouldingRinse the mould with cold water and do not dry it; the film of water releases the pudding cleanly. Chill at least four hours, or overnight, before unmoulding onto a cold plate.
- Yield and servingAbout one quart, serving four to six. The recipe says only "serve with cream"; poured cream rather than whipped is the likely intention, though the text does not specify.
Cornstarch puddings like this one belong to the era when commercial corn starch, manufactured in the United States from the 1840s and marketed for cooking from the following decade, gave American cooks a cheap thickener that did not depend on eggs or expensive gelatine. Books of this period commonly call the plain version blancmange and the chocolate version chocolate cream or chocolate blancmange. Beating in stiff egg whites at the end was a familiar way of turning a dense starch mould into something closer to a spooned dessert. Unsweetened chocolate was commonly sold in cakes scored into one-ounce squares, which is why so many recipes of the day count chocolate by the square rather than by weight.