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Cheese Creams
2 heaping tablespoonfuls grated cheese 2 heaping tablespoonfuls 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley 1/2 pint (1 cup) half-set aspic jelly Salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste 1/2 pint (I cup) whipping cream Beat up the cream till stiff and stir into it the cheese; add the aspic jelly and the seasonings. Divide into china ramequins; when set, sprinkle over with a little chopped parsley.
Serve very cold.
A cold savoury moulded in individual ramekins, set with aspic rather than cooked. The whole thing turns on the state of the aspic when it goes in.
- Half-set aspic is the hingeThe jelly must be at the point of thickening — syrupy, holding a faint trail from the spoon — before it meets the cream. Warm aspic will melt the whipped cream and separate; fully set aspic will break into lumps that never disperse.
- Aspic jellyAt this period this meant a clarified, well-seasoned meat or poultry stock set with its own gelatine or with added leaf gelatine. A cup of strong chilled stock softened with about 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered gelatine gives a comparable set; a firm commercial aspic powder made to packet strength also works.
- MeasuresThe author glosses a half pint as one cup. If the Imperial half pint is meant that is roughly 10 fl oz / 285 ml, appreciably more than a US cup; if the gloss is taken at face value, use a cup. Two heaping tablespoons of grated cheese is about 20-25 g, so the cheese is a flavouring, not the body of the dish.
- Which cheeseA dry, sharp grating cheese such as farmhouse Cheddar or Parmesan suits the dish, though the recipe specifies only 'grated cheese'. Grate it as finely as possible; coarse shreds stay gritty in a cold cream and will not soften.
- Red pepperCayenne, used in the pinch quantities of the period. It is there to cut the fat of the cream, not to make the dish hot.
- MethodWhip the cream to soft peaks, then fold rather than stir once the aspic goes in (the recipe says stir), or the mixture will deflate and set dense.
- Setting and yieldDivide among small china ramekins (roughly four to six, depending on size) and chill at least two hours. Serve as a savoury before the dessert fruit or as a first course with dry toast or thin water biscuits.
- KeepingMade with fresh stock and cream and never heated, these should be eaten the day they are made and kept refrigerated until the moment of serving.
Cheese creams belong to the British savoury course, the small sharp or salted dish that came after the sweet at a formal Edwardian dinner and before the dessert fruit. Cold moulded creams set with aspic were a staple of that course because they could be made hours ahead, turned out in quantity, and served without a kitchen scramble between courses. The ramekin itself is often said to have been a relatively new fixture in the domestic kitchen: books of this period promoting cooking and serving in the same vessel treated small individual china dishes as both a labour-saving device and a mark of good service. Aspic made from clarified stock was ordinary household work when bones and calf's foot were cheap and gelatine was a by-product of the stockpot rather than something bought in a box.