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Neapolitan Cream
Ingredients.
Yolks of four Eggs.
Half a pint of Milk.
Half a pint of Double Cream.
One ounce of melted Gelatine.
Half a pint of Jelly.
One ounce of dried Cherries.
Three ounces of Preserved Ginger.
Make a custard with the eggs and milk, and let it cool; cut up the ginger very small, cook it for ten minutes in one gill of syrup, and let it also cool. Decorate a mould all over with the jelly and dried cherries. Stir the melted gelatine, the ginger, and the cream, whipped, into the custard; pour all into the decorated mould, and set.
A moulded Bavarian-style cream in the late Victorian manner: cooked custard, whipped cream, gelatine, and a decorated jelly lining. The hinge is temperature control — everything must be cool but still fluid when it is combined.
- Imperial measuresThis is a British book, so a pint is 20 fl oz and half a pint is 10 fl oz (about 1¼ US cups). A gill is a quarter of a pint, 5 fl oz; the recipe does not say what syrup, but the syrup from the preserved-ginger jar is the obvious candidate.
- The gelatine is the one figure to changeOne ounce (28 g) of gelatine reflects a period in which gelatine was generally weaker and less refined than what is sold now. Modern powdered or leaf gelatine at that quantity would set this mixture very stiff. For the pint of custard and cream plus the gill of ginger syrup, something in the region of 15–18 g of modern gelatine should give a cream that holds a moulded shape and still cuts softly.
- "Half a pint of jelly"A separate, already-made clear jelly — wine, calf's-foot or fruit — used liquid to line the mould and fix the cherries in place. Pour a thin layer, let it set firm in the refrigerator, arrange the fruit, then fix it with more jelly before the cream goes in.
- Double creamBritish double cream is about 48% fat. Heavy or whipping cream is the closest substitute; whip only to soft peaks so it folds into the custard without streaking or seizing.
- Dried cherriesIn this period the term often covered cherries dried in sugar, i.e. candied or glacé, rather than the chewy sour dried cherries sold now. Glacé cherries hold their colour against the jelly; modern dried cherries are more likely to bleed.
- Custard temperatureFour yolks to 10 fl oz of milk is a thin pouring custard. Cook it to about 175–180°F (80–82°C), stirring, then strain and cool. If it is still warm when the gelatine and whipped cream go in, the mixture can separate into a jelly layer and a foam layer.
- Order of workingHave the custard cool, the ginger and syrup cool, and the gelatine melted and just warm — not hot. Stir the gelatine into the custard first, then the ginger, then fold in the cream, and pour at once before it begins to set at the edges.
- Setting and turning outGive it at least 4–6 hours in the refrigerator, or overnight for a large mould. Dip the mould briefly in hot water and invert onto a wetted plate so the cream can be slid into place.
- YieldAbout 1½ pints of finished mixture, serving six to eight.
"Neapolitan" in Victorian confectionery is often said to have signalled arrangement as much as origin — layers, contrasting colours and decorated moulds, the same logic that gave us Neapolitan ice cream, itself usually traced to Naples and Italian ice-cream makers, and the little Neapolitan wafers of the period. Preserved ginger in syrup, imported in stone jars from China, was a staple of the well-stocked English store cupboard and a favourite flavouring for cold sweets, its heat cutting the richness of a yolk-and-cream base. The technique is the standard crème bavaroise of the professional kitchen: an egg custard set with gelatine and lightened with whipped cream, given a lined mould so that it can be turned out whole at the table.