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Ivory Cream
1/2 Tablespoons Granulated Gelatine 1/2 Cup Honey 2 Cups Milk 1 Cup Thin Cream 1 Cup Peaches or Other Fruit 1/2 Teaspoon Bitter Almond Warm the milk, cream, and honey together, but do not scald them. Add the gelatine, which has been soaked in milk for a few minutes, and the almond extract. Stir until the gelatine is dissolved, and set it in a cold place until it begins to stiffen. Then add the peaches, peeled and cut fine. Mix lightly and pour into a wet mold. Bananas or canned peaches may be used when fresh fruit is not in season. Decorate with split almonds and serve with whipped cream.
A molded gelatine cream sweetened with honey rather than sugar. It is straightforward, but two things decide whether it works: how much gelatine you actually use, and keeping the milk below a simmer.
- The gelatine quantity is ambiguousThe line reads "1/2 Tablespoons Granulated Gelatine," almost certainly a dropped "1" for 1 1/2 tablespoons. That is about 4 1/2 teaspoons, or two standard envelopes, which is right for setting three cups of liquid plus fruit firmly enough to unmold. Half a tablespoon alone would give you a loose pudding, not a mold.
- Soak before you heatTake a few tablespoons from the measured 2 cups of milk, sprinkle the gelatine over it cold, and leave it five minutes until it swells. Granulated gelatine dropped straight into warm liquid clumps and never fully dissolves.
- "Do not scald"This is the hinge. Honey and milk want about 120-130F, warm to the finger and no more. Boiling is unnecessary for gelatine, scorches the milk sugars against the pan, and can dull the honey's flavor.
- Thin creamPeriod "thin cream" is roughly 18-20 percent butterfat. Half-and-half is the closest supermarket equivalent; light cream also works. Modern heavy cream will make the result noticeably richer and slightly heavier in the mold.
- Bitter almondThe recipe means bitter almond flavoring, and its own second mention calls it "the almond extract." Use ordinary bottled almond extract, which is benzaldehyde-based. Oil of bitter almond is a different and far stronger product; unrectified, it contains hydrocyanic acid and should not be used in food. Half a teaspoon of extract in this quantity of liquid is assertive; a quarter teaspoon suits most modern palates.
- When to add the fruitChill until the mixture has the body of raw egg white, roughly 45 to 60 minutes in the refrigerator, then fold in the peaches. Added earlier, the fruit sinks to what will become the top of the unmolded cream.
- Fruit that will not setPeaches, bananas and canned fruit are all fine. Fresh pineapple, kiwi, papaya, mango and figs contain protease enzymes that digest gelatine and leave a syrupy mess; if you want those, use the canned form, which has been heated enough to destroy the enzyme.
- The wet mold, and setting timeRinsing the mold with cold water and leaving it damp is what lets the cream release. Allow at least 4 hours to set, or overnight. To unmold, dip the outside in warm water for about ten seconds and invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldAbout 4 1/2 cups, filling a 1 1/2-quart mold and serving six to eight.
Molded gelatine creams like this one belong to the moment when gelatine stopped being a laborious kitchen project and became a packet. Through most of the nineteenth century a cook wanting jelly boiled down calves' feet or bought sheet isinglass; granulated gelatine sold in envelopes made a cold molded dessert something a beginner could attempt. The name appears to be descriptive rather than traditional: milk, cream and honey set without eggs or coloring give a pale, faintly yellow-white column. The honey is worth noting too, reflecting a run of early twentieth-century interest in honey as a wholesome alternative sweetener, promoted in cookbooks and in beekeepers' pamphlets alike.