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Cold Cabinet Pudding
¼ box gelatine or 1 tablespoon granulated gelatine 1/4 cup cold water 1/3 cup sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups scalded milk 1 tablespoon brandy Yolks 3 eggs Soak gelatine in cold water and add to custard made of milk, eggs, sugar, salt; strain, cool slightly, and flavor. 5 lady fingers 6 macaroons Place a mould in pan of ice-water, decorate with candied cherries and angelica, cover with mixture, added carefully by spoonfuls; when firm, add layer of lady fingers (first soaked in custard), then layer of macaroons (also soaked in custard); repeat, care being taken that each layer is firm before another is added. Garnish, and serve with Cream Sauce I and candied cherries.
A gelatine-set Bavarian custard layered with cake and macaroons — a cold relative of the steamed cabinet pudding. The original assumes you already know how to make a soft custard, which is where the dish is won or lost.
- The hinge: cook the custard gentlyCombine the yolks, sugar, salt and scalded milk in the top of a double boiler and stir constantly until it coats the spoon, around 170-175F. Take it off the heat the moment it thickens; a boiled custard curdles and no amount of straining will bring back the texture.
- Gelatine quantities"1/4 box" (the original's "14" is a typographical loss of the fraction) corresponds roughly to one modern envelope of granulated gelatine, 1/4 oz or about 7 g, though the tablespoon called for here is slightly more than an envelope holds. Bloom it in the cold water for five minutes, then stir it into the custard while the custard is still hot enough to dissolve it completely, before straining.
- Scalded milkHeat to about 180F, until steam rises and bubbles ring the edge. With pasteurised milk this is now only a way of shortening the custard-cooking time, not a safety step.
- Flavor after cooling slightlyVanilla and brandy go in once the custard is off the heat and no longer steaming, as the recipe directs — alcohol and vanilla aromatics drive off in a hot pan.
- AngelicaCandied stems of Angelica archangelica, sold as bright green strips for decorating and now hard to find outside specialist confectioners. Candied citron peel or thin strips of candied green cherry give the same effect.
- MacaroonsThese are firm almond macaroons of the amaretti type, not coconut haystacks and not the sandwich cookies now called macarons. They need to be dry enough to absorb custard without collapsing.
- Mould and chillingA charlotte or plain cylindrical mould of about 1 to 1 1/2 quarts suits the quantity. The pan of ice-water sets each layer faster than an icebox would; a refrigerator does the job, though the ice bath is still quicker if you want each layer firm before adding the next. Allow roughly 15-20 minutes per layer, and several hours or overnight for the finished pudding.
- Turning outDip the mould in warm water for a few seconds and invert onto a chilled plate. The decorated layer set against the bottom of the mould becomes the top.
- Yield and sauceEnough for about six. Cream Sauce I is given elsewhere in the same book and should be looked up there; lightly sweetened whipped cream or a pouring creme anglaise stands in.
Cabinet pudding is an English dish, generally traced to the early nineteenth century and also recorded under the names Chancellor's pudding and Newcastle pudding: sponge cake or bread, dried fruit and custard, steamed in a plain mould and turned out hot. The cold version here is a different animal, built on the French Bavarian cream method in which gelatine sets a custard that is then layered into a mould in the manner of a charlotte russe. Its presence in the Boston Cooking-School book might be read as a sign of how far the American cooking-school movement had absorbed French patisserie technique while keeping the older English names, and it reflects a practical fact about the period kitchen: gelatine had lately become a reliable packaged product sold in sheets and boxes, so a set cream no longer required a cook to boil calves' feet. The ice-water bath in the instructions suggests a household with a dependable supply of ice, though the recipe itself does not tell us more than that.