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Orange Trifle
1/2 box gelatine or 2 tablespoons granulated gelatine 1/2 cup cold water 1/2 cup boiling water 1 cup sugar 1 cup orange juice Grated rind 1 orange 1 tablespoon lemon juice Whip from 3 1/2 cups cream Make same as Charlotte Russe, and mould; or make orange jelly, color with fruit red, and cover bottom of mould one-half inch deep; chill, and when firm fill with Orange Trifle mixture. Cool remaining jelly in shallow pan, cut in cubes, and garnish base of mould.
A moulded gelatine cream in the Charlotte Russe manner, leaning on a cross-reference the way most books of this period did. The measurements translate cleanly once you know what a box of gelatine was.
- Half a box of gelatineA box of this period is generally reckoned at about 1 oz, so half a box is roughly 1/2 oz, which is why the recipe offers two tablespoons of granulated gelatine as the alternative. That is close to two standard 1/4 oz envelopes.
- "Whip from 3 1/2 cups cream"Older cooks whipped cream and skimmed the stiff froth off the top, discarding or re-whipping the thin remainder. With modern heavy cream, whip about 2 cups to soft peaks and you will have the volume intended; whipping all 3 1/2 cups gives far more than the mould holds.
- The Charlotte Russe method, in briefThe cross-referenced recipe is not given here, but the usual period procedure for a mixture of this kind runs: soften the gelatine in the cold water, dissolve it in the boiling water, stir in the sugar until clear, then add the orange juice, rind and lemon juice and strain. Chill the mixture over ice, stirring, until it thickens to the consistency of raw egg white, then fold in the whipped cream.
- The hingeFold the cream in at exactly the point the base begins to set. Too warm and the cream melts and the dessert separates into a clear jelly layer under a foam layer; too cold and the gelatine sets in lumps that will not disperse.
- Fruit redThis is bottled red food colouring, sold in the period for tinting jellies and icings. A few drops of modern liquid or gel colour does the same job.
- The orange jelly liningThe jelly is a separate preparation the book expects you to have — orange juice, sugar and water set with gelatine, roughly 1 tablespoon granulated gelatine per pint of liquid. Set the tinted half-inch layer in the mould first and let it firm completely before adding the cream mixture.
- UnmouldingRinse the mould with cold water before filling rather than oiling it. Chill at least 4 hours, then dip the mould briefly in warm water to the rim and invert.
- YieldAbout a 6-cup mould, serving 8 to 10. It is very sweet by current taste; a cup of sugar against a cup of juice can be reduced by a third without affecting the set.
"Trifle" here does not mean the English layered pudding of sponge, sherry and custard. In American cookbooks of this period the word is sometimes applied to a light moulded cream, and this one is close in structure to a fruit Bavarian cream — gelatine, flavouring and whipped cream — dressed up with a tinted jelly lining and a border of chopped jelly cubes. That presentation was the point. Granulated gelatine sold in measured boxes had by then largely displaced the tedious business of boiling calves' feet, which brought elaborate moulded desserts within easier reach of a household with an icebox, and cookbooks of the period carry a great many of them. A garnish of cut jelly at the base was one of the familiar devices for making a plain white mould look more elaborate.