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Chestnut Mold
3/4 lb. chestnuts 2 tablespoonfuls sherry wine 3 egg yolks 1/4 lb. (1/2 cup) sugar 1 tablespoonful powdered 1 pint (2 cups) milk gelatine 1 gill (1/2 cup) boiling water Some whipped cream Shell the chestnuts, boil and press through a sieve. Scald the milk in a fireproof dish, add the sugar, and
A chestnut Bavarian cream set with gelatine, from the era when a "casserole" meant the fireproof dish you cooked in on the stovetop as much as in the oven. The printed text breaks off mid-sentence, so the finish has to be inferred from the ingredient list — what follows assumes the standard method for a gelatine custard.
- The ingredient list is scrambledThe original was set in two columns and has been run together: the actual list is 3/4 lb chestnuts, 3 egg yolks, 1/4 lb (1/2 cup) sugar, 1 pint (2 cups) milk, 1 gill (1/2 cup) boiling water, 1 tablespoonful powdered gelatine, 2 tablespoonfuls sherry, and whipped cream to finish.
- A gillHalf a cup, 4 fluid ounces. Here it is the water for dissolving the gelatine, not an addition to the custard.
- GelatineOne tablespoon of powdered gelatine is roughly one and a quarter envelopes, about 10 g — enough to set a pint of milk plus the chestnut purée firmly enough to unmold. Soften it in cold water first, then dissolve in the boiling water; adding dry powder to hot liquid gives you strings.
- The custard is the hingeEgg yolks, sugar and scalded milk want to come to 170–180F over low heat, stirred constantly, and no further. Above that the yolks curdle and no amount of sieving will make the mold smooth again. Off the heat before it looks thick enough — it tightens as it cools.
- Chestnuts3/4 lb in the shell yields roughly 8–10 oz of peeled nut. Score the flat side, boil 15–20 minutes and peel while hot; the inner skin will not come off cold. Vacuum-packed peeled chestnuts, simmered until soft, work as a straight substitute. A food processor replaces the sieve, though a sieve still gives the finer texture.
- Order of assemblyStir the dissolved gelatine and the sherry into the finished custard, fold in the chestnut purée, then pour into a rinsed mold or individual ramekins. The sherry goes in off the heat so the alcohol and aroma survive.
- Setting and unmoldingFour hours in the refrigerator, or overnight. Dip the mold briefly in hot water and invert; a lightly oiled mold releases more reliably than a dry one.
- YieldA pint of milk plus the chestnut purée would serve about six, though the truncated text gives no yield. The recipe specifies only 'some whipped cream'; it was most likely spooned or piped around the turned-out mold rather than folded in, but the text breaks off before saying so.
Chestnut molds belong to the long line of cold gelatine entremets that were a familiar part of dessert courses from the nineteenth century onward, as prepared gelatines gradually made calf's-foot jelly and isinglass unnecessary in the domestic kitchen. The chestnut itself was a far more everyday ingredient in European and American cooking then than now \, sold by street vendors in autumn, sieved into purées, stuffed into poultry, and candied as marrons glacés \, and its starchy sweetness suited a set cream better than most nuts. Books devoted to casserole and fireproof-dish cookery are often said to have multiplied in the early twentieth century, and their authors were keen to show that a single vessel could handle everything from soup to a scalded custard for a pudding.