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Apricot Marmalade (One pound of Small Red)
One pound of Small Red Strawberries.
Angelica. Brandy. One pint of Cream.
Pick out about a dozen of the best strawberries for decoration. Cut up the remainder, mix with the ratafias (chopped), sugar, lemon-juice, and brandy, and let them soak for about one hour Take a round of Genoese pastry, spread the edge with apricot marmalade. Place it on the dish it is to be served on, and stand the wafer biscuits round the edge, pressing them into the apricot marmalade. Pipe them with royal icing, just one rose inside each biscuit, to secure it to the pastry, then up the joining of the biscuits, round the top and bottom. Tie a band of ribbon round the centre of the biscuits and let the case stand for some time to set the icing. Whisk the cream, strain the brandy from the fruit, mix the fruit with the cream, fill up the biscuit case, decorate to taste with strawberries and angelica, and serve.
A late-Victorian assembled cold sweet: a biscuit-walled case built on a round of sponge, filled with brandied strawberries in whipped cream. The printed heading and opening line have clearly been garbled in the original setting — the title belongs to another entry, and the ingredient list omits the ratafias, sugar and lemon juice that the method later calls for.
- The missing ingredientsThe method uses ratafias, sugar, lemon juice, wafer biscuits, royal icing and apricot marmalade, none of which appear in the heading. Assume roughly 2 oz crushed ratafia biscuits, 2-3 oz caster sugar, the juice of half a lemon and 2 tablespoons brandy for the 1 lb of fruit.
- Build the case firstThis is the hinge. The icing must be fully set and the ribbon tied before any cream goes in, or the wall bows outward under the filling. Allow at least an hour, and fill only just before serving.
- RatafiasSmall, hard almond macaroons, close to Italian amaretti. Amaretti secchi, crushed, are the nearest modern substitute; they soften into the fruit juices as the mixture stands.
- Wafer biscuitsExactly what the author meant is not certain; period 'wafers' were thin crisp biscuits, but the method requires something firm enough to stand upright as a wall. Sponge fingers (boudoir biscuits) or langues de chat are workable modern substitutes. Trim the bases flat so they sit square in the apricot marmalade.
- Apricot marmaladeNot citrus marmalade: this is sieved apricot jam, warmed and used as the standard pastry glue and glaze of the period. Warm it, push it through a sieve, and use it while still tacky.
- Genoese pastryGenoise sponge, baked in a shallow tin and cut to a round about an inch smaller than the finished dish. A firm, slightly dry sponge holds up better than a soft modern one.
- Royal icing and raw egg whiteTraditional royal icing is uncooked egg white and icing sugar. Use pasteurised egg white or meringue powder, particularly if serving anyone elderly, pregnant or immunocompromised.
- The cream"Whisk the cream" means double or heavy cream taken to soft peaks only — it will slacken again once the wet fruit is folded in. Drain the fruit thoroughly and reserve the brandy for something else, or the filling will weep.
- AngelicaCandied angelica stem, once sold everywhere for green decoration, is now a specialist item. Thin strips of candied citron peel or simply fresh mint give the same visual break against the red fruit.
- YieldThe recipe gives no size or number served. On these quantities -- 1 lb of fruit and 1 pint of cream -- a case of roughly 8 inches is a reasonable guess, serving perhaps eight to ten. Assemble on the serving dish, as the method directs; it cannot be moved once built.
Dishes of this kind -- a ring of upright biscuits iced together into a wall, filled with fruit and whipped cream -- recall the charlotte russe, with its wall of sponge fingers. The ribbon tied round the middle suggests confectioner's work rather than plain cookery. The heading and the ingredient list do not match the method.