Home › Salads › Asparagus Loaf-Donald Fudge
Asparagus Loaf-Donald Fudge
2 tablespoons butter. 2 tablespoons flour. 4 eggs. 1 scant tablespoon gelatine. 1 lemon (juice.) Seasoning to taste (salt, paprika and pepper.) 1 can asparagus. 1 pt. whipped cream.
Heat butter in double boiler and strain flour to which has been added water into butter, stirring all the time until it becomes thick. Beat eggs well and pour over eggs the flour and butter, stirring eggs continually. Put this mixture again in double boiler and cook until eggs are done, stirring same until ready to remove from the fire. (This only takes a few moments.) Then add the dissolved gelatin. Add seasonings and juice of lemon. When cool add whipped cream (about four large kitchenspoonfuls). Line pan with asparagus tips and pour over same this mixture and layer of asparagus on top. Put on ice to congeal and serve with whipped cream mayonnaise, to which has been added a little lemon juice.
If you would give the loaf the asparagus flavor beat in the custard the tender shoots of the asparagus tips.
A gelatine-set savoury mousse of the sort that dominated American salad courses between the wars. The written quantities are internally inconsistent in one place, and the custard step is where the dish is won or lost.
- The whipped cream contradictionThe ingredient list says 1 pint of whipped cream, but the method calls for "about four large kitchenspoonfuls," which is nearer a cup than a pint. Since the loaf is served with a whipped cream mayonnaise, the surplus was probably intended for the sauce, though the recipe does not say so. Whip a pint of heavy cream, use roughly a cup in the loaf, keep the rest for the sauce.
- The custard is the hinge"Cook until eggs are done" means bringing the egg-and-roux mixture to about 170-180F over the water bath, stirring without pause, until it coats a spoon. Push past that and it curdles into grains that no amount of folding will smooth out. Strain it through a sieve before cooling as insurance.
- GelatineA scant tablespoon is roughly one modern envelope (about 7 g), which will set this volume, though not stiffly. Soften it in 3-4 tablespoons of cold water for five minutes, then dissolve over heat and stir into the hot custard, as the recipe directs, rather than the cooled one.
- "Strain flour to which has been added water"This is a slurry: whisk the 2 tablespoons flour smooth with a few tablespoons of cold water, then push it through a sieve into the melted butter to catch lumps. It thickens in a minute or two over simmering water.
- Canned asparagusCanned tips are limp and salty by modern taste but they line a mold neatly. If you use fresh, blanch until just tender, then dry the spears thoroughly on a towel so surface water does not loosen the set.
- Folding and settingCool the custard to barely warm and just beginning to thicken before the cream goes in; fold, do not stir. A 1 1/2-quart loaf pan is about right. Four hours in the refrigerator sets it; overnight is better. Dip the pan briefly in warm water to unmold.
- Whipped cream mayonnaiseMayonnaise folded with softly whipped cream, sharpened with lemon as directed; roughly equal parts works. Fold it together shortly before serving, as it will slacken if it stands.
- YieldA loaf of this size cuts into 8 to 10 slices as a salad course. Serve cold, on lettuce, with the sauce on the side rather than over the slice.
This recipe belongs to the high period of the American "loaf" salad, when gelatine sold in measured envelopes made molded savoury dishes practical for a household cook. The construction here is a French cold mousse in plain dress: a flour-thickened egg custard set with gelatine and lightened with cream, a technique that would be called a savoury bavarois in a hotel kitchen. Canned asparagus is the tell of the era, as such loaves were meant to be assembled year-round from the pantry shelf.