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Croquante of Strawberries
1 quart of strawberries 1 tablespoonful of gelatine Charlotte Russe Cover the gelatine with cold water and let it soak a half hour, then add to it two tablespoonfuls of boiling water and stir until dissolved. Dip a plain two-quart mould in cold water, then stand it in a pan of ice water. Stem the berries, and dip each one in the gelatine, then press them against the inside of the mould; and in this way they will stick, allowing you to arrange them in any fancy design you may choose. A wreath around the side of the mould and a rose in the bottom made from the berries is very pretty. Angelica may be used for the leaves and stems, or you may line the mould perfectly solid with the berries. Now fill with Charlotte Russe and stand away to harden. This will serve eight persons. way.
Croquante of Raspberries may be made in the same
This is an assembly job rather than a cooked dish, and it succeeds or fails on temperature. The mould must stay cold enough that the gelatine sets on contact, or the berries slide down the sides while you work.
- Keep the mould in ice waterThe instruction to stand the mould in a pan of ice water is the hinge of the whole recipe. Chilled metal sets the thin film of gelatine within a second or two, which is what holds each berry against a vertical surface. A room-temperature mould, or a modern silicone one, will not do it.
- The gelatineOne tablespoon of granulated gelatine is roughly one modern envelope (about 7 g / 1/4 oz). Soak in cold water, then dissolve in two tablespoons of boiling water as directed, and keep the little bowl in a pan of warm water while you work or it will stiffen before the berries are placed.
- Charlotte RusseThe filling is given under its own name, presumably elsewhere in the book; period versions are typically sweetened, flavoured whipped cream, often set with gelatine, poured in soft and left to firm. If the version you use is bound with uncooked egg white rather than gelatine alone, use pasteurised egg or choose a cream-and-gelatine formula instead.
- AngelicaCandied angelica stems, cut into thin strips for leaves and stalks, were a standard confectioner's green in the 1880s. It is still sold by baking suppliers; candied citron peel or thin strips of green-tinted candied lemon peel stand in.
- Berry choiceUse small to medium berries of even size, ripe but firm. Large or soft supermarket strawberries weep juice into the cream and blur the design. A quart is about 1 1/2 lb / 650 g, more than you need for the lining, so sort for the best-looking fruit.
- Setting time"Stand away to harden" means several hours refrigerated; overnight is safer for a two-quart mould. Do not freeze it to hurry things along, as the cream turns grainy and the berries go watery on thawing.
- UnmouldingDip the mould in warm — not hot — water for a few seconds, dry the outside, and invert onto a chilled plate. Warm water melts the thin gelatine film that grips the fruit, so work quickly and serve at once.
- YieldEight portions, as stated. It will not hold up on a buffet for long in warm weather; keep it refrigerated until the moment it goes to the table.
Croquante normally means something crisp — a caramel or nut confection that cracks under the spoon — so its use here for a soft moulded cream reads as a loose bit of period kitchen French, apparently borrowed for the ornamental, built-up look rather than the texture. The dish belongs to the late-nineteenth-century vogue for lined and patterned moulds, by which time prepared gelatine was widely available in the home kitchen. Its appearance in a book of hot weather dishes is the point: nothing is baked, the oven stays cold, and the whole thing is built in a pan of ice, which in an era of iceboxes and coal ranges was exactly what a July dessert was supposed to be. Charlotte Russe, the filling, is generally traced to the early-nineteenth-century French kitchen and is said to be named for a Charlotte, though which one is disputed; some American cookbooks of the period used the name loosely for a sweetened whipped-cream filling rather than for the lined, moulded set piece.