Home › Sunday Night Suppers › Wild Rose Bavarian
Wild Rose Bavarian
1 pint ripe red raspberries 1 pint ripe currants 1 cup water 3/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons cornstarch 2 egg whites, beaten stiff 1/2 cup cream, whipped Add water to fruit, boil till tender. Press through sieve, add sugar and bring to boil again. Smooth the cornstarch in little cold water, add to boiling mixture and cook in double boiler till thickened. Cool and fold in egg whites. When cold, fold in whipped cream, chill in electric refrigerator for 2 hours. Serve with little whipped cream and whole berries in each glass.
A 1930s refrigerator dessert that reads simply enough, but the method leaves one ingredient raw in a dish that is never heated again.
- The raw egg whitesThe stiffly beaten whites are folded into a mixture that has already been cooled, then only chilled. Nothing in the procedure brings the whites anywhere near a temperature that would address Salmonella, and the dessert is served cold. This was written before shell eggs were widely understood as a vehicle for the organism.
- Chilling does not helpRefrigeration slows bacterial growth but does not undo contamination. A current recipe for a fruit Bavarian should be used instead.
- "Electric refrigerator"The recipe specifies the then-new electric refrigerator rather than an icebox.
- Not a true BavarianA classic bavarois is set with gelatin over a custard base. Here the thickening is entirely cornstarch, cooked in a double boiler so it will not scorch or taste raw.
- Red currantsThe pint of ripe currants is doing real work \tacid and pectin to balance the raspberries. Fresh red currants are now scarce in North American markets, partly a legacy of the white pine blister rust bans on Ribes planting.
- YieldThe quantities \tabout a quart of fruit before sieving, three quarters of a cup of sugar, half a cup of cream \twould fill perhaps four to six stemmed glasses; the recipe gives no yield, but it does direct that it be served in glasses.