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Strawberry Mold
Whip 1 cupful of thick cream until very stiff and light; cut 1 pint of berries into small bits with a silver fruit knife and stir them lightly into the cream. Soak 1 tablespoonful of granulated gelatine in ¼ of a cupful of cold water and when soft place over hot water until dissolved.
Add this by degrees to the cream and berries, stirring, and adding 3 tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. When the mixture begins to thicken turn it into a wetted mold and put away in a cold place until set, then turn out on a fancy dish.
A cold-set cream mold that depends entirely on getting the gelatine into the whipped cream without deflating it or setting it in threads. Everything else is straightforward.
- The hinge: temper the gelatineDissolved gelatine hitting cold cream will seize into rubbery strings instantly. Let it cool until barely warm to the touch but still fluid, then add it in a thin stream while stirring, and work quickly once it starts to thicken.
- "14 of a cupful"A typographical slip for 1/4 cupful — 2 fl oz — which is the standard soaking liquid for a tablespoon of gelatine. The same fault gives "I cupful" and "I pint" for 1 cupful and 1 pint.
- Granulated gelatineOne tablespoon is roughly one envelope (1/4 oz) of modern unflavoured powdered gelatine, which sets about two cups of liquid firmly. Counting the cream, the soaking water and the juice from a pint of cut berries, there is not far off that much liquid here, so expect a mold that holds its shape when turned out rather than a notably stiff one.
- Thick creamMeans heavy or whipping cream, 36% fat or better. Half-and-half or "light cream" will not whip stiff and the mold will weep.
- The silver fruit knifeNot decorative fussiness. Carbon steel blades of the period discolored acidic fruit and left a metallic taste; stainless steel now does the job with no such trouble.
- SugarPowdered sugar dissolves without grittiness in an unheated mixture, which is likely why it is specified. Three tablespoons is restrained — taste the berries first and add more if they are pale supermarket fruit.
- Wetting the moldRinsing with cold water and shaking out the excess helps the set cream release. A light film of neutral oil works at least as well. To unmold, dip the base in warm water for a few seconds and invert onto the dish.
- Chilling and yield'A cold place' means the refrigerator; allow at least four hours, and overnight is safer for a mold you intend to turn out whole. Serves four to six.
Gelatine molds of this kind belong to the brief window when the ingredient stopped being a luxury and became a pantry staple. Through most of the nineteenth century a cook wanting jelly might boil down calves' feet or isinglass, a slow and smelly job, though prepared sheet and shred gelatine — Nelson's, Cox's and similar — was commercially sold from the mid-nineteenth century; granulated gelatine, sold in packets from around 1890, put the same effect within reach of anyone with a saucepan of hot water. A recipe like this one leans on that: a cupful of cream and a pint of berries, stretched by air and set with a few cents' worth of powder, produces something that looks like a much more expensive dessert when turned out onto the "fancy dish." The strawberries also mark it as a seasonal recipe from before reliable year-round produce, meant for the few weeks when local berries were cheap and abundant.