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Plain Bavarian Cream
Moisten the contents of one-half box of Larkin Gelatine in onehalf cup of cold water, one pint of milk and stir into it the yolks of four eggs beaten with one cup of sugar. When cooked take from stove, add the Gelatine, one pint of cream whipped until stiff, and onehalf teaspoon of Larkin Orange Flavoring Extract. Pour into mold and serve cold.
A stirred custard set with gelatine and lightened with whipped cream. The written method is compressed to the point of being misleading, so the order of operations matters more than anything else here.
- Read the order of operations firstAs printed, the eggs and sugar appear to go into cold milk. In practice the milk is scalded, the yolk-sugar mixture is tempered with a little of it, and the two are cooked together over low heat or in a double boiler until the custard coats a spoon, around 170-175F. It must not boil or the yolks will curdle.
- Half a box of gelatinePeriod boxes of granulated gelatine commonly held about an ounce, so half a box is likely around half an ounce, roughly two of today's quarter-ounce envelopes, about a tablespoon and a half. That is in the right range to set a quart of custard and cream into something firm enough to unmold.
- Softening the gelatineHalf a cup of cold water for softening is generous; five minutes is enough. Stir it into the hot custard off the heat until no grains remain, then strain the custard to catch any stray thread of cooked egg.
- Cool before foldingThe custard must be cooled to lukewarm and just beginning to thicken before the whipped cream goes in. Fold warm custard into whipped cream and the cream deflates and the mixture separates into a jellied layer under a foam layer.
- CreamA pint of cream whipped until stiff means heavy or whipping cream, whipped to soft-to-medium peaks rather than stiff by modern standards; over-whipped cream folds in as lumps.
- FlavoringHalf a teaspoon of a branded orange extract is the original; any good orange extract works, and the zest of an orange steeped in the hot milk gives a cleaner flavor. Add extract after the custard has cooled, since alcohol-based flavorings dissipate in heat.
- The moldRinse the mold with cold water rather than oiling it. Chill at least four hours, preferably overnight, and unmold by dipping the outside in warm water for a few seconds.
- YieldA pint of custard plus a pint of cream whipped fills appreciably more than a quart; allow a mold of about a quart and a half, serving six to eight.
Bavarian cream, or bavarois, is a nineteenth-century restaurant construction: an egg custard stiffened with isinglass or gelatine and folded with whipped cream, which sets cold in a shaped mold. Its connection to Bavaria is traditional rather than documented, and the dish is often said to have originated with French chefs of the early 1800s working in or for German courts, though this too is tradition rather than documented credit. What made it a fixture of American home cookbooks by 1900 was not the technique but the ingredient: packaged granulated gelatine, sold in small boxes, replaced the tedious business of clarifying calves' feet and put molded desserts within reach of any kitchen. The named brands here, gelatine and flavoring extract both, mark this as a manufacturer's promotional cookbook, a form the mail-order companies of the period used heavily to sell pantry staples by giving away the recipes that required them.