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Velvet Cream
1036. Dissolve one ounce of isinglass in a breakfast-cup full of raisin wine, and a little brandy; add the juice of two small lemons, on which rub some lumps of sugar to obtain the essence. When the isinglass is quite dissolved strain it into a basin, and, when quite cool, but not set, stir into it gradually a pint of cream, and then put it into a mould.
A set cream of the older sort, stiffened with isinglass rather than whipped or baked. The whole thing turns on temperature control at the moment the cream goes in.
- The hinge: temperature when combiningThe wine-and-isinglass base must be cool enough that it no longer feels warm to the fingertip, yet still fully fluid. Too warm and the cream thins and may split against the acid of the lemon; too cool and the setting agent seizes into threads that no amount of stirring will smooth out.
- IsinglassIsinglass is dried fish swim bladder, once the standard clarifier and setting agent; it is now sold mainly to brewers and winemakers. Powdered gelatine is the usual modern stand-in — as a rough guide about half the stated weight (roughly 4 teaspoons, or two standard envelopes) should set this volume of liquid, though you may need to adjust. Bloom it in a little cold water first, then dissolve in the warmed wine rather than boiling it.
- A breakfast-cupA Victorian breakfast cup holds 8 to 10 fl oz, appreciably larger than a teacup. Take it as one generous cup of liquid.
- Raisin wineA sweet homemade wine pressed from dried raisins, common in nineteenth-century still-rooms and effectively gone from commerce. A sweet oloroso sherry, Madeira, or Muscat gives the same weight of raisin and caramel.
- Rubbing sugar on the lemonsDragging a lump of sugar across the zest pulls the oils into the sugar — the same trick as an oleo-saccharum. Two or three lumps per lemon, and let them sit in the warm wine to melt. Zest grated straight in works, but leaves flecks in a cream meant to be smooth.
- A pint of creamAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz. Use double or heavy cream unwhipped; single or light cream will not carry the richness the name implies. Stir it in, do not whip.
- Setting and turning outFour to six hours in the refrigerator, or overnight for a large mould. Rinse the mould with cold water before filling, and dip it briefly in hot water to release.
- YieldAbout 1½ pints of finished cream — six to eight small servings, a size that would suit a sweet course of several dishes rather than a single dessert.
Velvet cream belongs to the long English family of moulded creams and "flummeries" that filled the sweet course from the eighteenth century to the late Victorian era, when a well-appointed kitchen owned a shelf of copper and tin moulds and a cook was judged partly on whether her jellies stood up. Isinglass was the setting agent of choice before commercial powdered gelatine became cheap and reliable in the later nineteenth century; it was prized because it gave a clearer, less "gluey" set than the calf's-foot stock that preceded it, though it was expensive and had to be shredded and coaxed into solution. The raisin wine points to a household that made its own — raisin wine was a standard still-room product, brewed because it was cheaper than imported sweet wine and served much the same purpose in cooking. Recipes of this kind were often named for texture rather than origin, and the name is simply a promise about what the spoon will meet.