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Italian Cream
Only another name for Roman cream. The following is the form with pure cream which, if it were the only way would generally preclude its appearance at hotel tables. The Italians themselves like to flavor it strongly with rum and add ground cinnamon till it looks brown. 1 quart of cream to boil. 1 pint of double cream to whip cold. 1 pound of sugar. 16 yolks of eggs. 2 ounces of gelatine. Stick of cinnamon and piece of orange peel. Curacao or sherry or Madeira to flavor. Put the gelatine in a cup of milk in a warm place to dissolve some time before wanted. Boil the quart of cream with the sugar, cinnamon and orange peel in it. Beat the yolks and pour them to the boiling cream and immediately take off and strain into a freezer surrounded with ice water. When nearly cold pour in the dissolved gelatine and beat up light, then whip the pint of double cream to froth and stir it in and lastly the liqueur.
We will point out here that all of our own ways, which we call hotel ways, being short and direct, dispense with the separate dissolving of the gelatine, which is really a troublesome and time consuming little matter. We dissolve it in the milk or cream on the fire, without even a previous steeping. Still if we happen to drop into the work-rooms of some restaurant Francaise we shall find them proceeding in a different manner, and such reoeipts as the last serve to show what that manner is.
This is a Bavarian-style gelatine cream built on a rich custard, written for a hotel pastry room where sixteen yolks and a pound of sugar were an ordinary morning's work. Two things need attention before you start: the gelatine quantity and the custard temperature.
- Scale it down firstAs written this makes roughly six cups of custard base plus whipped cream, enough for 16 to 20 moulded portions. Quartering the whole thing (1 cup cream to boil, 1/2 cup cream to whip, 4 oz sugar, 4 yolks) gives four to six servings and is far easier to handle.
- The gelatine is the hingeTwo ounces in this volume of liquid will set very firm by modern standards; period gelatine was less consistent and generally less refined than the standardised product sold today, so recipes of this date often call for more than you need. For the full batch use about 1 oz (four 1/4-oz envelopes) for a firm turned-out mould, or three envelopes for something spoonable. Bloom it in the cup of cold milk for five minutes, then warm to dissolve.
- Cook the custard, do not just scald itPouring beaten yolks into boiling cream and taking the pan straight off leaves the mixture at an uncertain temperature. Return it to low heat and stir to 175-180F (a thermometer is worth more than any visual cue here), then strain. It will thicken slightly and the eggs are then properly cooked.
- "Double cream" and "cream to boil"Double cream here simply means the richest cream available for whipping; use heavy cream, 36% or above. The quart to be boiled can be light cream or half-and-half without loss, since the whipped pint supplies the richness.
- "A freezer surrounded with ice water"The freezer is the metal canister of a hand-crank ice cream churn, used here purely as a chilling vessel, not to freeze anything. A stainless bowl set in a larger bowl of ice water does the same job.
- Order of assemblyAdd the dissolved gelatine while the custard is cool but still fluid, then fold in the cream whipped only to soft peaks. If the custard has begun to set, the whipped cream will break it into lumps; if it is still warm, the cream will deflate. Aim for the consistency of unwhipped heavy cream.
- FlavouringCuracao, sherry or Madeira go in last, off the heat, so nothing cooks away. The Italian style the author mentions is rum with enough ground cinnamon to colour the cream brown; ground cinnamon will speckle rather than dissolve, so add it gradually and judge by eye as the author directs.
- Setting and turning outThe recipe stops at the mixing. If you want to mould it, pour into a lightly oiled mould or individual cups and chill at least four hours, overnight for the full quantity; dip the mould briefly in warm water to release. It can equally be set in glasses and spooned.
Italian cream, Roman cream and Bavarian cream were all names for much the same thing in the American hotel kitchen: a cooked egg custard set with gelatine and lightened with whipped cream, moulded and turned out cold. The national labels signalled a flavouring or a garnish rather than any real geography, which is exactly why the author opens by saying this is "only another name for Roman cream." What makes the entry interesting is the aside at the end. The recipe is presented as the French restaurant method, with the gelatine soaked and dissolved separately, and then set against what the author calls the hotel way, dissolving the gelatine straight into the cream on the fire. That argument between the classical pastry room and the volume-driven American hotel kitchen lies behind the frank note that pure cream at this cost would generally keep the dish off a hotel table at all.