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Italian Cream
1072. Grate the peel of two lemons, squeeze the juice on the peel, add some sifted sugar-it should be made pretty sweet-then pour over it one pint and a half of cream; stir it well that it may not curdle, beat it with a whisk till it is as thick as batter; put a piece of muslin into a tin mould (to be pierced full of holes), and pour the cream into it. The tin should be placed across a dish, that it may stand hollow. Fill up the mould as the whip subsides.
A drained whipped lemon cream, essentially a firm syllabub set by draining rather than by gelatine. It stands or falls on the order of operations and the fat content of the cream.
- Add the acid carefullyLemon juice and cream can curdle if the juice is dumped in cold and stirred hard. Sweeten the juice and zest fully first, then add the cream and stir it well, as the original directs, to keep it from curdling.
- Cream to useThis needs double cream or heavy cream at 36 per cent butterfat or more. Anything labelled whipping cream at 30 per cent, and certainly single or light cream, will not hold a whip against the acid.
- A pint and a halfTaking this as imperial measure, a pint is 20 fl oz, so this is 30 fl oz, about 850 ml or roughly 3 1/2 US cups. It is a large quantity, and it whips better in two batches.
- "As thick as batter"That is soft peak, not stiff. Cream whipped to stiff peaks with acid in it will break into grains and weep unpleasantly rather than draining cleanly.
- Mould and clothThe pierced tin mould is a drainer; a colander or a sieve lined with damp muslin or a doubled square of cheesecloth does the same job. Setting it across a bowl so the base hangs clear lets whey run away instead of sitting under the cream.
- Draining timeRefrigerate while it drains, at least four hours and preferably overnight. Topping up as the whip subsides, as instructed, matters if you want a full turned-out shape.
- SugarSifted sugar means caster or superfine, which dissolves in the juice. Granulated will stay gritty in an uncooked cream. Start at about 4 oz (115 g) and taste before the cream goes in.
- YieldRoughly six to eight servings once the whey has drained off. Turn out onto a dish and serve the same day; it slumps by the second.