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Sect. 1.-General Observations (Creams include in their ranks)
999. Creams include in their ranks a variety of rich and delicious sweet dishes, chiefly made with a foundation of milk or cream, and either whipped into a froth or eaten in a solid state. Isinglass or gelatine, or calf's foot jelly, are used to stiffen them, together with eggs in some cases.
MOULDS. 1000. COLOURING TO STAIN CREAMS AND JELLIES:- For a beautiful red, boil fifteen grains of cochineal in the finest powder, with a drachm and a half of cream of tartar in half a pint of water, very slowly for half an hour; add in boiling a bit of alum the size of a pea. Or, use beet-root sliced, and some liquor poured over.
For white, use the almonds finely pounded, with a little drop of water. Or, use cream.
For yellow, yolks of eggs, or a bit of saffron steeped in the liquor and squeezed.
For green, pounded spinach leaves or beet-leaves; express the juice, and boil in a teacup placed in a saucepan of water to take off the rawness.
THE MIXTURE of two coloured jellies, or of blancmange or cream with jelly, is made by allowing the first layer in the mould to harden sufficiently to bear the succeeding one of a different colour without their intermixing; several colours may be added in this way.
This is the colour chart for a Victorian dessert table: four natural stains and the method for building striped moulds. The quantities are given in apothecaries' weights, so start there.
- Grains and drachmsFifteen grains of cochineal is just under 1 gram; a drachm and a half of cream of tartar, read as apothecaries' drachms, is about 5.8 grams, or close to two teaspoons. Half a pint in this book is 10 fluid ounces, roughly 285 ml.
- The hinge: low and slowThe red is a slow extraction, not a boil-down: the book specifies 'very slowly', and the acid cream of tartar draws colour out of the powdered insect over the half hour. Keep it at a bare tremble; a hard boil is best avoided, as it tends to dull the colour.
- The pea of alumAlum is a mordant here, added to fix and brighten the red rather than to flavour anything. Potassium alum is still sold for pickling, but keep to the stated pea-sized piece; larger amounts are astringent and unpleasant, and the finished colouring is meant to be used a few drops at a time.
- Cochineal todayPowdered cochineal (carmine, E120) is still available from cake-decorating and dyeing suppliers. It is an insect product, so it is not vegetarian or vegan, and it is a recognised allergen for a small number of people.
- Beetroot and heatThe beetroot alternative is the least stable of the four. Betalain pigments fade with prolonged heat, so add beet liquor to a cream or jelly that is already cooked and cooling, not to something that will be boiled again.
- Green without the rawnessThe teacup standing in a saucepan of water is a bain-marie: pressed spinach or beet-leaf juice held at a gentle heat coagulates the green pigment and drives off the grassy taste. Take it off as soon as it thickens and looks dull; boiling turns chlorophyll olive.
- White and yellowFor white, use blanched sweet almonds ground with a few drops of water to keep them from oiling. For yellow, a good pinch of saffron steeped in a spoonful of the hot liquid gives a truer colour than egg yolk, which also enriches and thickens whatever it goes into.
- Layered mouldsLet each layer set until it is firm to the touch but still slightly tacky, then pour the next on cool -- barely liquid, not hot -- or it will melt a channel into the layer below. Chilling to the point of a hard skin is the other failure: the layers then slide apart when the mould is turned out.
- QuantityThe red as written makes far more colouring than one dessert needs. Bottled and refrigerated it keeps for a week or two; halve or quarter the recipe if you only want a single cream tinted.