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Charlotte Russe
1/4 cup cold water 1 tablespoon gelatine 1/4 cup boiling water 1/2 cup sugar 1 pint whipped cream 1 teaspoon vanilla 6 maraschino cherries 1 dozen lady fingers Soak the gelatine in the cold water; add the hot water; stir until dissolved; then add the sugar. As soon as this is cool but not cold whip it into the cream which has already been whipped; flavor with vanilla and chopped cherries and turn into a bowl lined with halves of lady fingers.
A gelatine-set whipped cream molded in a shell of lady fingers. The recipe is straightforward, but two things in it need translating: the gelatine measures and the stray second set of quantities at the end.
- The hinge: gelatine temperatureThe dissolved gelatine must be cool to the touch but still fluid when it goes into the whipped cream, and it should be poured in a thin stream while whisking. Too warm and the cream slackens and weeps; too cool and it sets on contact into rubbery threads through the mixture.
- Gelatine measuresOne tablespoon of granulated gelatine is roughly one modern 1/4-oz envelope. The trailing "1/2 box or 2 tablespoons gelatine, 1/2 cup cold water, 1 cup boiling water" implies a box of four tablespoons; whether it is an alternative, firmer set of quantities for this dish or the stray beginning of the next recipe is not clear from the page. Note that it carries three times the water as well as twice the gelatine.
- The pint of creamMost likely one pint of heavy cream, whipped, which roughly doubles in volume, though the line could also mean a pint measured after whipping. Whip only to soft peaks: the gelatine will do the rest of the firming.
- Lady fingersA dozen lady fingers split lengthwise will line a bowl of a quart or so, depending on the size of the biscuits. Trim them to stand flush with the rim so the dessert turns out with a clean edge. Store-bought savoiardi are drier and firmer than the soft home-baked kind and hold their shape better against the cream.
- Maraschino cherriesIn this period these were still often true marasca cherries in liqueur, closer to today's Luxardo cherries than to the bright red candied sort. Either works; drain and blot them well, since syrup will streak the cream.
- Chilling and yieldThe recipe gives no setting time. Cover and refrigerate at least four hours, preferably overnight, before serving. Serves six to eight.
- ServingWith the single-tablespoon quantity the set is marginal, so it is safest to serve in spoonfuls straight from the lined bowl rather than inverting it onto a plate.
The charlotte russe is generally traced to Antonin Carême, who is said to have adapted the older baked apple charlotte into a cold mold lined with biscuits and filled with bavarian cream, giving it the "russe" name in the era of French chefs working for Russian patrons. By the time Mrs. Fryer was writing, the dish had become thoroughly American and thoroughly simplified: no custard base, no scalded milk, just packaged gelatine folded into whipped cream. That substitution is the real story of the page. Commercial granulated gelatine, sold by the box in measured grains, removed the day-long business of boiling calves' feet and put set desserts within reach of any household with an icebox — which is why loose-leaf cookbooks of this period are thick with them.