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Pineapple Cream
Mrs. Ida Bulkley. 1 large can pineapple 3 event gelatine ½ C sugar 1 pt. cream whipped stiff Cherries or slices of orange Cut pineapple into very small pieces and boil down juice with 2 C sugar. Dissolve gelatine in little cold water, add to juice and pour over pineapple. When cool, add whipped cream and pour into mould. Use cherries or slices of orange for garnish. Will serve 12 persons. Linna M. Corlett.
Note: Mrs. W. J. Dillon adds 1 T lemon juice to this recipe.
A gelatine-set pineapple cream of the sort that turned up at every church supper once packaged gelatine and canned pineapple were both cheap. The recipe as printed contains one contradiction and one typo worth sorting out before you start.
- "3 event gelatine"Almost certainly a typesetting error for 3 envelopes gelatine. A standard envelope is about 1/4 oz, or roughly 2 1/4 teaspoons, so three envelopes is a little over 2 tablespoons of powder. That is a firm, sliceable set intended to be turned out of a mould rather than spooned from a dish.
- The sugar is inconsistentThe ingredient list says 1/2 cup sugar; the method says boil the juice down with 2 cups. Canned pineapple was sold packed in water and in syrup of varying strength, so the larger figure may reflect a less sweet can. Either way the reduced juice will already be sweet, and the smaller figure is closer to modern taste.
- A large canProbably a No. 2 or No. 2 1/2 can, somewhere between about 20 and 30 oz. Drain it and reserve every drop of juice; you want roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups of liquid to reduce, topping up with water if the can runs short.
- Use canned, never freshUse canned, not fresh -- this is the hinge. Fresh pineapple contains bromelain, a protease that digests gelatine and leaves the mould a soupy puddle. The heat of canning destroys the enzyme, so the canned fruit called for here sets reliably. Frozen pineapple is not a substitute.
- Softening the gelatine"Dissolve in a little cold water" means bloom it — about 1/2 cup cold water, left five minutes until spongy, then stirred into the hot reduced juice off the heat until no grains remain. Powder tipped straight into hot liquid clumps.
- Cool before the creamLet the pineapple mixture cool to the point where it is syrupy and just beginning to thicken at the edges. Warm juice deflates whipped cream; fully set juice will not fold in at all.
- CreamA pint of heavy cream whipped stiff. Modern ultra-pasteurised cream whips more slowly; a chilled bowl helps.
- Unmoulding and yieldChill at least four hours, preferably overnight. Dip the mould briefly in warm water and invert onto a cold plate. Serves 12 as written, which is a mould of about two quarts.
- Mrs. Dillon's lemon juiceWorth taking. A tablespoon cuts the sweetness of the reduced syrup and sharpens the pineapple, which otherwise reads flat against all that cream.
Community cookbooks like this one are a valuable record of what American home cooks actually put on the table, and by the early twentieth century that increasingly meant things from cans and boxes. Pineapple was the emblem of the change: Hawaiian canneries scaled up sharply in the 1900s and 1910s, and a fruit that had been a costly novelty became a pantry staple within a generation. Granulated gelatine sold in pre-measured envelopes made the other half of the dish possible, replacing the long business of boiling calves' feet with a packet and a saucepan. The result is a recipe that shows its period exactly — a moulded, garnished centerpiece dessert that looks far more laborious than it is. Note too that this page carries three names: Mrs. Ida Bulkley, Linna M. Corlett, and Mrs. W. J. Dillon with her amendment. That layering of contributors and their small disagreements is characteristic of the genre, and the reason these books read like a conversation rather than a manual.