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Charlotte à la St. José (II)
(Pineapple Charlotte.) Ingredients.
Fifteen to twenty Sponge Finger Biscuits.
Half a pint of Cream.
Half a gill of Milk.
Quarter of a pound of preserved Pineapple, rather more. Half an ounce of Gelatine.
One ounce of castor Sugar.
About a gill of Wine Jelly.
Sherry to flavour Creamo Mask the bottom of a plain mould with jelly; ornament it with fancifully cut slices of pineapple, with half a glacé cherry in the centre. When nearly set pour the rest of the jelly on this, and let it set on the ice; line the sides of the mould with finger biscuits neatly trimmed.
Soak the gelatine in the milk. Let it dissolve over the fire; whip up the cream; mix it with the remainder of pineapple cut into small dice; add the sugar and a tablespoonful of pineapple syrup; strain the gelatine and milk into the A cream; mix well, and when cool enough pour it carefully into the mould. Keep in a cool place until required. Turn out and serve.
A cold charlotte russe in the classic mould: a jelly-set base, a wall of sponge fingers, and a lightly gelled pineapple cream. Nothing here is difficult, but the gelatine and the pineapple both need attention.
- Use canned or candied pineapple, never fresh"Preserved" here means pineapple in syrup or crystallised in sugar, both of which have been heated. Fresh or frozen pineapple contains bromelain, which digests gelatine and will leave you with a soupy mould that never sets.
- The measuresThis is a British book, so a gill is 5 fl oz and half a gill 2½ fl oz. Half a pint of cream is 10 fl oz (about 1¼ US cups); the wine jelly is about 5 fl oz; the pineapple is a generous 4 oz, roughly 120 g.
- Gelatine strength has changedHalf an ounce is about 14 g. Victorian gelatine was not graded for strength and was far more variable than modern powder or leaf, so a modern cook may well find less is needed: around 10–11 g should be ample for this quantity of cream and milk, and much more risks a rubbery set.
- Temperature of the dissolved gelatineThis is the hinge. Strain the milk-and-gelatine in while it is barely warm to the finger and fold quickly. Hot gelatine deflates whipped cream; cold gelatine seizes into threads that show as jelly strings through the finished charlotte.
- Whip the cream lightlySoft peaks only. The mixture must still pour into the mould around the biscuits, and gelatine will firm it considerably as it chills.
- "On the ice" means the refrigerator"On the ice" — this meant an ice chest or a bed of ice; a refrigerator is the modern equivalent. Set the decorated jelly base until firm before adding the second layer of jelly, then again before the cream goes in. Rushing this lifts the pineapple slices out of position.
- The biscuitsSponge fingers are ladyfingers or boudoir biscuits. Trim them to the exact height of the mould and stand them sugared side outward, cut edges tight against each other, so the cream cannot seep between them.
- "Sherry to flavour cream"The garbled line at the end of the ingredient list is simply sherry to taste in the cream, a tablespoon or two, alongside the tablespoon of pineapple syrup.
- Setting and turning outAllow at least six hours, preferably overnight. To unmould, dip the mould in hot water for three or four seconds, dry it, and invert onto a chilled plate. Serves six to eight.
The charlotte russe — a mould lined with sponge fingers and filled with a set cream — is generally traced to Antonin Carême in the early nineteenth century, and by the end of the Victorian era it had become one of the standard exercises of the professional and cookery-school kitchen: a dish judged largely on whether it turned out clean, with the biscuit wall upright and the jelly base clear. The pineapple version belongs to the same moment as the tinned and candied tropical fruit trade, which put pineapple within reach of British households that would never see a fresh one. "À la St. José" is not a fixed classical garnish, and appears to be a house or school designation; what identifies this one is the fruit and the sherry.