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Compotes, Etc., of Fruit: Charlotte
Charlotte de pommes is Apple Charlotte. If apricot jam is mixed with the apple marmalade it is called Charlotte de pommes aux abricots.
ENTREMETS.
Pears are dressed as Charlotte de poires, and in many of the ways given for apples.
Poires à l'Allemande are stewed pears. à la Victoria are stewed, and served on a border of sponge cake custard coloured red. en surprise are halves of stewed pears imitating cutlets, with a strip of angelica for a bone, on a jelly border, with chopped fruit and cream in the centre like a vegetable mayonnaise.
Timbale de poires is stewed pears in a shell of paste, covered with apricot marmalade.
Compote de poires au riz is stewed pears served with a border of rice.
Compote à la Normande is a mould of pears stewed in cider. Slices of fried bread spread with this compote are called Croûtes à la Normandc.
They are dressed in a circle, with a syrup of the jam with wine in the centre.
Croûtes de poires à la Parisienne is a border of stewed pears on croûtons, with a macédoine of fruit in the centre.
Fraises à la Chantilly are strawberries with whipped cream.
Croûtes aux fraises à la Bellerive-strawberries spread on buttered buns.
Chartreuse de fraises is a mould lined with strawberries and filled with crushed strawberries and cream. This is also made with raspberries and other fruit. Gâteau de fraises à la St. Georges-mashed strawberries with yolks and whipped whites of eggs, baked in a mould lined with paste. It is covered with maraschino icing and decorated with strawberries and whipped cream.
Meringue à la Mont-Ida-crushed raspberries covered with cream and then with meringue.
Groseilles vertes à la Saint-Honoré are stewed green gooseberries in a shape of pastry, covered with cream, with a border of balls of choux paste. Cherries or any other fruit may be dressed in this way.
Pain de mûres sauvages à la Metropole is a mould of blackberries decorated with almonds and dried fruits. This is also made with black currants as Pain de cassis, or de cerises, with cherries.
Salade aux oranges-slices of oranges with wine and raisins, garnished with angelica, etc.
Mousse aux oranges is orange sponge-the juice whipped to a sponge with whites of eggs, etc.
Charlotte aux oranges is an orange Charlotte.
Bananes au rhum-stewed bananas served with a rum sauce.
Pain d'ananas à la Royale is a mould of pineapple purée set in jelly and garnished with whipped cream.
Compote à la Sarde is composed of green figs covered with milk which has been boiled to a custard, and baked.
Marrons à la crème are powdered chestnuts covered with whipped cream.
Gâteau de marrons is a steamed mould of pounded chestnuts with cream, eggs, etc. Balls of ENTREMETS. this preparation, breadcrumbed and fried, are served as Croquettes de marrons. Chestnuts are also served en compote-stewed in syrup.
Châtaignes croquantes are small crystallized pieces of pounded chestnuts with sugar, eggs, etc.
Gâteau de figues is a mould of dried figs. Dates and prunes are dressed in the same way.
Macédoine de fruits is composed of mixed fruits in syrup. Au citron, it is flavoured with lemon.
En gelée, it is set in a mould of jelly.
Gâteau de fruits is a mould of any kind of fruit; à la crème, it is served with cream or custard; à la Metropole, it is decorated with cherries or other dried fruits; à la Royale, it is set in a mould lined with jelly, and is served with cream.
Timbale de fruits à la Parisienne is composed of mixed fruits in a mould of jelly flavoured with liqueur; served with a fruit macédoine.
Chartreuse de fruits is an ornamental mould of fruit.
Croûtes aux fruits are fried slices of bread or cake, spread with various preserved fruits, and served with a fruit syrup.
A run of fruit entremets, almost all of them moulded. What looks like variety here is really one idea repeated: fruit, cooked and set or packed into a shape, then turned out.
- A charlotte is a lining and a fillingCharlotte de pommes is apple cooked down to a marmalade stiff enough to hold, inside a mould lined with bread or cake. The filling has to be drier than you would think — a loose compote will collapse the lining and run on the dish.
- Dishes dressed as other dishesPoires en surprise are halves of stewed pear cut to look like cutlets, with a strip of angelica pushed in for a bone, arranged on a jelly border around chopped fruit and cream “like a vegetable mayonnaise.” The pleasure of the dish is the deception. A modern reader takes this for whimsy; at the time it was evidence of a trained hand.
- AngelicaThe green strips in these dishes are candied angelica stems, still sold by baking suppliers and still the only thing that gives that particular dull green. Nothing else does the job, and glacé cherries are not a substitute for it.
- Croûtes means fried breadCroûtes à la Normande, croûtes aux fraises, croûtes aux fruits — all of them are slices of bread or cake, fried, and spread with fruit. It is a way of using stale bread, arranged in a circle with syrup in the middle so that nobody has to say so.
- The moulds need a stiffer set than you want to useNearly every dish here has to stand unsupported on a dish in a warm room. That means more gelatine than a modern recipe would use, and a long chill. If you scale these down to a modern set, make them in glasses and stop pretending they will turn out.
- Chestnuts, powdered and poundedMarrons à la crème, gâteau de marrons and croquettes de marrons all start from chestnuts cooked, peeled and worked to a paste. Vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts get you to the same place in ten minutes and are the one modern shortcut on this page that loses nothing.
Look at what the fruit list contains. Pineapple, bananas, oranges and green figs stand beside gooseberries, blackberries and black currants, which means the store-room and the greenhouse and the importer were all feeding the same table on the same evening. The most revealing entry is Pain de mûres sauvages à la Metropole: wild blackberries, picked from a hedge, set in a mould with almonds and dried fruit, and given a French name and a hotel’s. That is the whole method of this book in one dish. The material could be free; the name could not be.