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Compotes, Etc., of Fruit: Chantilly
Petits nougats à la crème are small shapes of nougat filled with cream; à la Chantilly, with Chantilly cream.
Croquantes are small pieces of nougat.
CREAMS.
Crème au chocolat is chocolate cream. These creams, served in little cups, are called Petits pots de crème au chocolat, etc.
Crème au café is coffee cream. de thé is tea cream. de thé vert is green tea cream. à la vanille is vanilla cream. au ponche, au noyau, au marasquin, are respectively flavoured with punch, noyau and marachinos. aux abricots is apricot cream. de fraises is strawberry cream. de framboises is raspberry cream. à l'ananas is pineapple cream. aux mille fruits is made with preserved strawberries, raspberries, apricots, plums and other fruits. d'oranges is orange cream. d'amandes is almond cream. It is sometimes called Crème à la Romaine. de marrons is chestnut cream. aux fleurs d'oranger is made of fresh orange flowers boiled in cream. de gingembre is made with ginger, and pieces of preserved ginger. de riz, de tapioca, à l'orge, are rice, tapioca and barley creams. de pain bis is brown-bread cream. de groseilles vertes is gooseberry fool. Rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries are dressed in this way; à la Suisse, they are served with sponge cakes.
ENTREMETS.
Crème de velours is made of cream, sugar, wine, etc. à la gelée-a mould of whipped jelly and cream. vierge-small moulds of cream with pounded almonds, etc. à la Chantilly is made of whites of eggs and cream, with sugar, etc. à la Celestine-a mould lined with strawberries and filled with any kind of cream. à l'Italienne is made with cream, sugar, eggs, curaçao, dried cherries, candied peel, etc. à la Flamande is made of cream, eggs, sugar, arrowroot, madeira, etc. à la Hollandaise is made of yolks of eggs and wine, with whipped cream, etc. à la Bavaroise-a mould of whipped cream, with flavouring, etc. Served with stewed fruit or a syrup of fruit, it is called Bavarois aux fruits. à la Suisse is vanilla cream over sponge cakes. à l'Antoinette-a custard with preserved ginger and cherries, set in a mould lined in divisions with chopped pistachios and white cream, and grated cocoanut and chocolate cream; served with a macédoine of fruit. à la Vénus-a mould of custard flavoured with rum, decorated with preserved ginger; served with a ginger custard. à la Marguerite is a chocolate custard covered with meringue; served with a sweet sauce.
One word, crème, is doing at least five jobs on this page, and the page does not stop to separate them. Sorting out which kind of cream each line means is most of the work of reading it.
- Five different things called creamIn these lines crème covers a baked pot custard, a flavoured whipped cream, a gelatine-set mould, a stirred custard served as a sauce, and, in one case, stewed gooseberries. Nothing in the layout tells you which, so the giveaway is the serving vessel: little cups means a custard, a mould means gelatine.
- Chantilly meant more than whipped creamA cook today reads Chantilly as cream whipped with sugar and vanilla. The page defines it as whites of eggs and cream with sugar, which is a lighter and much less stable thing, and will collapse if you make it hours ahead.
- The page translates one line for youCrème de groseilles vertes is gooseberry fool is the only moment the book admits that a grand French name can describe a homely English pudding. It then says rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries are dressed the same way, which is a usable recipe in itself.
- The moulds will not set from these notesÀ la gelée, à la Bavaroise and à la Guillaume Tell all depend on a setting agent that is never named or measured. Modern leaf and powdered gelatine are sold at standardised strengths, so these have to be rebuilt from a tested modern formula; there is no ratio here to scale.
- Noyau and ratafia are kernel flavoursBoth take their flavour from stone fruit kernels and almonds rather than from the fruit itself, and both were bought as a liqueur or a biscuit. Almond extract is not a substitute for either; it is sweeter and much blunter.
- Cocoanut and candied peelÀ l’Antoinette divides a mould into sections of pistachio, white cream, grated coconut and chocolate, which means a divider inside the mould and four mixtures held at the same consistency. This is a pastry-cook’s dish, not a household one, and the page gives it a single sentence.
What this page records is the point at which the sweet course stopped being cooking and became assembly. Almost every entry is a combination rather than a method: a mould lined with strawberries and filled with any kind of cream, a custard decorated with preserved ginger, a chocolate custard under meringue. The underlying preparations are few, and they are recombined to produce dozens of names, which is how a household could put a long list of entremets on a card without a long list of recipes. The entries that name candied peel, preserved cherries, dried fruit and bottled ginger also tell you where the variety came from: a store cupboard of imported preserved goods, kept in a locked room and drawn on all year, rather than anything in season.