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Spanish Cream
One-half box gelatine, 1 pint milk, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar; flavor. Soak gelatine in cold water 15 minutes, scald the milk; beat yolks of eggs with sugar, the whites separately. Put gelatine in the milk to dissolve. Add yolks of eggs and sugar. Stir all the time until it comes to a boil. Stir in the whites of eggs, last the extract, and pour into moulds.
— Mrs. Raymond L. Middlemas
A gelatine custard of the sort every church cookbook carried, worth making chiefly for the way it separates into two layers as it sets. A few of the original's quantities and directions need translating.
- The hinge: do not actually boil it"Stir all the time until it comes to a boil" will scramble a three-egg custard. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens and coats the spoon at about 175F, then pull it off. If it does catch, strain it immediately.
- "One-half box gelatine"Ambiguous. Period gelatine boxes varied by maker; a figure often cited is roughly 1 oz to the box, subdivided into smaller papers or envelopes, which would put half a box at about 1/2 oz. One 1/4-oz envelope (about 2 1/4 tsp) of modern granulated gelatine sets 2 cups to a clean unmoulding softness; a second envelope gives the firmer, sliceable texture a moulded cream of this kind was after.
- SoakingSprinkle the gelatine over 1/4 cup cold water and leave 5-15 minutes until it swells, then dissolve it in the scalded milk off the heat. Modern granulated gelatine may hydrate faster than some of the sheet and shred forms sold in the period.
- The whitesThey are stirred into the hot custard, which cooks them only partly. If that matters to you or to the people eating it, use pasteurized eggs. Fold them in gently rather than stirring hard — the loose foam is what produces the layers.
- "Flavor"1 to 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, added at the end so the heat does not drive it off. Lemon extract, or a strip of lemon peel steeped in the hot milk, also appears in period versions, and a little sherry works.
- The mouldsRinse them with cold water first and do not oil them. Chill at least 4 hours, and expect a clear jelly layer at the bottom of the mould with a foamy cream above — that stratification is the point of the dish, not a fault.
- YieldOne pint of milk plus eggs makes about 3 1/2 cups, or four to six small moulds. Serve cold with cream, or a thin fruit sauce.
Spanish cream is one of a large family of nineteenth-century gelatine desserts — with charlotte russe, snow pudding and blancmange — that became household staples once packaged gelatine made the old labor of boiling calves' feet unnecessary. The name is traditional rather than descriptive; there is no particular Spanish origin on record. What distinguishes it from a plain jellied custard is the beaten whites: because the foam rises while the gelatine sets, the finished mould separates into a translucent base and a pale mousse-like top. Its appearance here, credited to a contributor by her husband's full name, is typical of the church fundraising cookbook — a signed, reliable, inexpensive company dessert built from a pint of milk, three eggs and a box of gelatine off the grocer's shelf.