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1051. Divide your eggs from the whites as for custards, about six to a pint of milk. Put the milk on the fire, and, while boiling, beat the whites up till they stand pretty firm, then take a quantity of the white on an egg slice and put it on the milk; when it is swollen and has boiled for half a minute, turn it on to the other side and do the same. Then put it on a dish and do the same with the rest of the whites; it will make about six lots, and you need not be afraid of putting one upon another . It looks just like snow. Make a custard with the rest of the eggs, milk, and sugar; flavour and serve as you like. Place in a dish, with the snow on the top, and custard round; or the snow lightly placed on the custard; or, snow on one dish and custard on another. CREME A LA VANILLA (OR MAURITIUS CREAM). 1052. Take three table spoonfuls of arrowroot and mix smoothly with three of cold milk: add a pint of boiling milk quickly stirred in. Whip well the yolks of six eggs and add to the arrowroot and milk; then boil gently over the fire until it becomes a rich yellow colour; but be very careful-for a little boil too much, and your cream is spoilt; flavour with a teaspoonful of the best vanilla. When nearly cold, add two teaspoonfuls of brandy, and pour the cream into a crystal dish. Whisk the whites of six eggs till they are as light as possible, and whip in six table-spoonfuls of sifted sugar. Pile it up rockily or plain, as you please, on the cream when cold, ornamenting with ratafias and pink sugar according to taste.
BLANCMANGE. 1053. Boil two ounces of isinglass in three half-pints of water half an hour; strain it through fine muslin into a pint and a half of cream; sweeten, and add a few bitter almonds pounded. Let it boil once up; if not wanted very stiff, a little less isinglass will do. Stir the blancmange occasionally while cooling, but let it settle before pouring into the moulds, or the blacks will settle in the moulds, and show themselves at the top when turned out. Another Blancmange. -Infuse for an hour, in one pint and threequarters of milk, the thin rind of a small lemon, and eight bitter almonds blanched and bruised; add two ounces of sugar and one ounce and a half of gelatine; boil them over a slow fire, stirring until the isinglass or gelatine is dissolved. Take off the scum. Stir in half a pint of rich cream, and strain the blancmange into a bowl. It should be moved gently with a spoon till nearly cold, to prevent the cream from rising to the top; add by degrees a wine-glassful of brandy, and when nearly cold pour it into a mould.
ARROWROOT BLANCMANGE (excellent). 1054. To a quart of new milk add a quarter of a pound of arrowroot sweetened to taste, and a pennyworth of cinnamon water; stir it well whilst on the fire, boil ten minutes, pour it into a mould, and let it stand twenty-four hours. Many prefer the flavour of lemon-peel or laurel-leaf to the cinnamon.
The snow eggs at 1051 are a straightforward poached-meringue dessert, but the page as printed runs on into three blancmange recipes, two of which are built on bitter almonds. That is the reason for the warning above.
- Why the cautionBoth blancmange recipes call for pounded or bruised bitter almonds, which contain amygdalin and release hydrogen cyanide when crushed and wetted. Unprocessed bitter almonds are not sold as food in Britain or the United States. Estimates of a harmful dose vary widely and are much lower for children than for adults, so the quantities here (eight nuts, or "a few") should not be reproduced. The alternative flavouring offered in 1054, laurel leaf, is most likely cherry laurel, which carries cyanogenic compounds of the same kind.
- Imperial measuresThis is a British book, so a pint is 20 fl oz, not 16. "Three half-pints" is 30 fl oz. A wine-glassful is roughly 2 fl oz.
- Yolks, not eggsThe opening line means separate the yolks from the whites, six eggs to a pint of milk. The whites are poached and the yolks go into the custard, so nothing is wasted.
- An egg sliceA flat perforated server, the ancestor of the slotted fish spatula or skimmer. Use whatever lets milk drain away as you lift the meringue.
- Keep the milk below a boilThe instruction to work in boiling milk is the weak point. A hard boil tears the whipped whites apart; hold the milk at a bare shiver, around 180F, and the quenelles of white set in about 30 seconds a side as described.
- The custardStrain the poaching milk and use it for the custard so it carries the flavour. Cook the yolks, milk and sugar over low heat to 175-180F, stirring, until it coats a spoon, then take it straight off. The warning in 1052 that "a little boil too much and your cream is spoilt" applies here too: yolks curdle just above 185F.
- IsinglassA setting agent made from fish swim bladders, chiefly sturgeon, largely gone from domestic kitchens. Powdered gelatine replaced it, and the second blancmange already offers gelatine as the alternative; the two were not necessarily interchangeable by weight.
- Yield and servingSix eggs and a pint of milk give six meringues and about a pint of custard, enough for four to six. Assemble shortly before serving; poached whites weep if they sit.