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Royal Diplomatic Pudding
Place mould in pan of ice-water and pour in Wine Jelly II one-half inch deep. When firm, decorate with candied cherries and angelica, proceed as for Fruit Chartreuse, filling the centre with Charlotte-Russe mixture or Fruit Cream.
Peel four bananas, mash, and rub through a sieve; add pulp and juice of two oranges, one tablespoon lemon juice; one tablespoon Sherry wine, two-thirds cup powdered sugar, and one and one-fourth tablespoons granulated gelatine dissolved in one-fourth cup boiling water. Cool in ice-water, stirring constantly, and fold in whip from two cups cream.
A lined-mould dessert in the French style: a clear jelly shell, a decorated band, and a soft cream centre. Nothing here is difficult, but the order of operations is unforgiving and the book assumes you already know the companion recipes it points to.
- Read it as three recipesThe instructions cross-reference Wine Jelly II, Fruit Chartreuse and Charlotte-Russe mixture. Only the banana cream filling is spelled out in full; the jelly shell and the decorating method live elsewhere in the book, so have those pages open before you start.
- The hinge: chill the mould, not the jellyThe mould sits in ice water so each half-inch layer sets on contact and the next pour does not melt it. If the mould warms, the decorations float and the layers bleed. Work in thin additions and give each one a few minutes.
- AngelicaCandied stems of Angelica archangelica, sold in bright green batons and used purely for colour against the cherries. It is scarce outside specialist confectioners; candied citron or thin strips of candied lime peel stand in visually.
- "Whip from two cups cream"Period practice was to beat cream and skim off the stiff froth as it rose, discarding or re-beating the thin remainder. In practice, whip two cups of heavy cream to soft peaks and fold that in; expect the finished pudding to be lighter and looser than a modern mousse.
- Gelatine strengthOne and one-fourth tablespoons of granulated gelatine is roughly 3¾ teaspoons, or somewhere between one and a half and one and two-thirds of today's ¼-oz envelopes (about 11-12 g). Modern gelatine is generally more consistent in strength than turn-of-the-century granulated, so this should set firm; do not add more.
- Cool before foldingCooling the banana base over ice while stirring constantly is not optional. Fold whipped cream into a warm gelatine mixture and it deflates; let the base set too far and it seizes into lumps that will not disperse. You want it thickened to the consistency of unbeaten egg white.
- Bananas darkenSieved banana browns within minutes. The orange and lemon juice help, but work quickly and get the mixture into the mould rather than leaving it standing.
- Unmoulding and yieldChill at least four hours, ideally overnight. Dip the mould in warm water for five to ten seconds, wipe dry, and invert onto a cold plate. The recipe gives no mould size; the quantities suggest something in the region of eight to ten servings.
The name comes from the French pouding à la diplomate, a nineteenth-century moulded dessert of sponge or ladyfingers, candied fruit and custard; the association with the diplomatic table is the traditional explanation of the name rather than a documented origin. By the late nineteenth century it was part of the elaborate cold-dessert repertoire taught in American cooking schools. The recipe is characteristic of the Boston Cooking School approach: the showpiece is built by cross-reference, assembled from a jelly, a chartreuse method and a cream filling that each appear on their own elsewhere in the book, so a student who had worked through the section could combine them without new technique. The reliance on granulated gelatine is itself a marker of the period; commercially packaged gelatine had by then made this kind of moulded work far more practical for a home kitchen than the long labour of boiling down calf's foot for stock jelly.