Lemon Cream
INGREDIENTS for 1½-pint mould.-1 pint of cream, the yolks of 2 eggs, lb. of white sugar, 1 large lemon, 1 oz. of isinglass or gelatine. AVERAGE CosT, 2s. 6d.
Put the cream into a lined saucepan with the sugar, lemon-peel and isinglass and simmer these over a gentle fire for about 10 minutes, stirring them all the time.
Strain the cream into a jug, add the yolks of eggs, which should be well beaten and put the jug into a saucepan of boiling water; stir the mixture one way until it thickens, but do not allow it to boil; take it off the fire and keep stirring it until nearly cold. Strain the lemon-juice into a basin, gradually pour on it the cream and stir it well until the juice is well mixed with it. Have ready a well-oiled mould, pour the cream into it and let it remain until perfectly set. When required for table, loosen the edges with a small blunt LEMON CREAMS. knife, put a dish on the top of the mould, turn it over quickly and the cream should easily slip away.
TIME.-10 minutes to boil the cream; about 10 minutes to stir it over the fire in the jug.
SEASONABLE at any time.
A set custard cream, essentially a lemon Bavarian in Victorian dress. Two things need attention before you start: the setting agent and the printed sugar quantity.
- The sugar quantity is brokenThe text reads "lb. of white sugar" with the fraction evidently dropped in printing. A quarter-pound (about 4 oz, ½ cup) is the likeliest intended figure against a pint of cream; a full pound would be cloying. Treat about 4 oz as the working amount.
- Isinglass is not modern gelatineIsinglass, made from sturgeon swim bladders, is not interchangeable by weight with today's refined gelatine, and Victorian moulds were dosed to set firm enough to turn out without refrigeration. One ounce of modern powdered gelatine would set this into rubber; for 1 imperial pint (20 fl oz / 2½ US cups) of cream, about 4 leaves of gelatine or 2½ teaspoons of powder is enough for a mould that turns out cleanly.
- Imperial measuresA pint here is the imperial 20 fl oz, not the American 16. The 1½-pint mould is roughly 30 fl oz, or a scant litre.
- The hinge: acid goes in last, and coolLemon juice added to hot cream will curdle it instantly. The recipe is quite deliberate in stirring the custard "until nearly cold" before the juice goes in, and in pouring the cream onto the juice rather than the other way round. Follow that order exactly.
- Peel, not juice, in the panOnly the pared zest is simmered with the cream, and it should be pared thin — white pith turns the infusion bitter over ten minutes of heat. The straining step exists to remove it.
- Custard temperatureOver the water bath, take the custard to about 175-180F, when it coats the back of a spoon. Boiling scrambles the yolks; the instruction not to let it boil is the whole reason for the jug-in-a-saucepan arrangement.
- Oiling and unmouldingUse a flavourless oil, applied thinly with kitchen paper. If it resists after the knife, dip the mould in hot water for three or four seconds — no longer, or the surface melts.
- Setting time and yield"Until perfectly set" means at least 4 hours refrigerated, better overnight. It serves six as a dessert.
Moulded creams like this one were a fixture of the Victorian supper table, sitting between the older flummeries and blancmanges and the elaborate charlottes and Bavarois of the French repertoire. The setting agent tells the story: isinglass, a pure collagen prepared from the swim bladders of sturgeon, was the expensive respectable choice, while cheaper households boiled down calves' feet for the same effect. Commercially prepared gelatine was spreading through British kitchens by this period, which is why the recipe itself prints "isinglass or gelatine". The listed average cost of two shillings and sixpence marks this as a genuinely dear dish for its day — a pint of cream and an ounce of isinglass were not everyday purchases — and the note "seasonable at any time" is worth noticing in a book where many sweets were tied to the fruit calendar.