Flummery
INGREDIENTS for quart mould.-1 oz. of gelatine, the rind and juice of 1 lemon, 4 eggs, 1 pint of raisin wine, loaf sugar to taste, 1 pint of water. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 6d.
Put the gelatine with the lemon-rind in the water in a lined saucepan, and simmer gently until the gelatine is dissolved; strain into a basin and add the eggs, well beaten, the lemon-juice, strained, and the wine; sweeten to taste with pounded loaf sugar; mix all well together and pour the mixture into a jug. Put this jug, as a custard, in a pan of boiling water, and keep stirring until the mixture thickens, but do not let it boil. Strain it into an oiled or wetted mould, and put it in a cool place to set.
It is better to make this dish the day before it is required. TIME.-15 minutes to simmer the gelatine, 15 minutes to stir. SEASONABLE at any time.
A stirred wine custard set with gelatine — essentially a boozy jellied custard turned out of a mould. Two things decide whether it works: the strength of the gelatine and the temperature of the custard.
- The hinge: never let it boilThe mixture is a stirred custard and will curdle above roughly 185F/85C. Take it off when it coats the back of a spoon, around 175F/80C, and strain it immediately as directed — the straining catches any threads of set egg.
- Gelatine strength has changedVictorian gelatine varied in quality and was generally weaker than modern powdered gelatine, so 1 oz (28 g) here is likely more than a modern cook needs. Roughly two 7 g envelopes (14 g) should set a quart of liquid firmly enough to turn out; a full ounce of a modern brand risks a rubbery set. Powdered gelatine can be bloomed in a little of the cold water first rather than simmered for a quarter of an hour.
- Raisin wineA sweet homemade country wine, now essentially unobtainable. A cream sherry, Madeira or sweet Marsala gives the nearest weight of flavour; adjust the added sugar downward accordingly.
- Loaf sugarSugar was bought as a hard cone and broken and pounded as needed. Caster sugar is the direct equivalent, and it dissolves into the warm custard without grittiness.
- MeasuresThese are imperial pints of 20 fl oz, so the pint of water and pint of wine come to just under 2½ US cups each. A quart mould here is an imperial quart, about 1.1 litres.
- The jug in a panThis is a bain-marie improvised from a heatproof jug standing in simmering water. A heatproof bowl over a pan does the same job, and a double boiler is more stable still. Direct heat on the hob will scramble the eggs.
- UnmouldingOiling with a flavourless oil works better than wetting for a clean release. Dip the mould briefly in hot water, then invert onto a wetted plate so the flummery can be slid into position.
- Yield and timingA quart mould serves six to eight. The instruction to make it the day before is sound — gelatine continues to firm for several hours, and a same-day flummery may not have set fully.
Flummery began as something quite different: the Welsh llymru, a sour jelly made by steeping oatmeal husks in water until they soured, then straining and boiling the liquor to a set. It was plain, cheap food, eaten with milk or honey, and the name entered English in the seventeenth century. By Mrs Beeton's day the oatmeal had largely disappeared from what was called flummery, and the word covered pale moulded jellies and blancmanges enriched with cream, almonds, wine or eggs — the province of the dessert table rather than the breakfast bowl. The word's other career, meaning empty flattery or nonsense, is generally traced to the same root, on the grounds that the original dish was insubstantial stuff. This version is set with gelatine rather than isinglass or calf's-foot stock, and packaged gelatine of this kind did make moulded desserts markedly less laborious for middle-class kitchens, though older methods went on being used alongside it.