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Bavarian Cream
1 1/2 pints of milk. 1 1/2 pints of thick cream. 12 ounces of sugar. 2 ounces of gelatine-full weight. 1 cupful or less of maraschino. Set the milk over the fire with the sugar and gelatine in it and stir-till the gelatine is all dissolved--nearly at the boiling point. Then strain it into an ice cream freezer set in ice water and let it get nearly cold. Whip the cream to froth. Beat the milk in the freezer likewise and then mix the two and continue beating till the Bavarian is a delicate white sponge, and mix in the maraschino while beating.
These creams are the most acceptable of all the substitutes for ice cream, and have the advantage that they can be set in molds, and different sorts placed on a set table at the same time, or a mold entire served at a family table. For hotel service it is generally best to serve them out of the freezer in saucers with whipped cream or fruit. They then appear on the bill of fare as:
A hotel-scale bavarois built without egg custard, relying entirely on gelatine and whipped cream. The whole thing turns on temperature control at the moment the two mixtures meet.
- The hingeThe sweetened milk must be cooled to the point where it is syrupy and just beginning to thicken before the whipped cream goes in. Warmer than that and the cream deflates into soup; colder and the gelatine sets in lumps you cannot beat out.
- Gelatine quantityTwo ounces of nineteenth-century gelatine is probably not the equivalent of two ounces of modern gelatine, which is generally stronger and more consistent. The full 2 oz (about eight 1/4-oz envelopes) in the recipe's 3 pints of liquid is roughly double a modern setting ratio and will tend toward a rubbery, sliceable block rather than a sponge; around half that is closer to a modern set.
- Do not boil"Nearly at the boiling point" is deliberate. Prolonged boiling can reduce gelatine's setting power, so bring the milk just to a shiver and pull it off.
- The freezer as mixing bowlAn ice cream freezer here is a hand-cranked can in an ice-and-salt or ice-water jacket, used as a paddle-agitated chilling vessel, not to freeze anything. A stand mixer with the bowl sitting in ice water does the same job.
- MaraschinoThis means maraschino liqueur, a cherry-kernel spirit, not the sweet red syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries. A cup in about 3 pints of mixture is assertive but not overwhelming; kirsch is the nearest common substitute.
- MouldingRinse moulds in cold water before filling, and give the cream at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. Dip the mould briefly in warm water to release.
Bavarian cream is the English name for the French bavarois, a cold moulded sweet of custard, gelatine and whipped cream that became a fixture of professional dessert work in the nineteenth century; the association with Bavaria is traditional rather than documented, and the dish belongs firmly to French kitchen practice. This version drops the egg custard entirely, which is a working pastry cook's economy: milk, sugar, gelatine and cream will hold a shape and take any flavour without the labour and the curdling risk of a stirred custard. The passage that follows the method explains why the book bothers with it at all: a mould of Bavarian cream could stand in for ice cream on the bill of fare, be set in several flavours at once, and be sent out either whole at a family table or from the freezer in saucers. It is a glimpse of dessert service organised around the constraints of ice rather than refrigeration.