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Spanish Cream
Take one-half box of gelatine; one pint of milk; three eggs (yolks and whites); five tablespoons of sugar; one and one-half teaspoons of vanilla; one-fourth cup of water. Soak the gelatine in water. Place all but one-half cup of the milk on the fire in a double boiler. Separate the yolks of the eggs from the whites, beat the yolks light, and add to them the one-half cup of milk reserved. When the milk in the boiler is boiling, stir in the dissolved gelatine, and cook for one minute. Then add the yolks and milk and cook for one minute longer, or until the whole is like thick cream. Beat the whites of the eggs stiff, and just before taking the cream from the fire, add them to it, stir well, and at once remove the cream from the heat. When nearly cold, add the vanilla; stir well, and pour the cream into a mold that has previously been dipped in cold water. Leave in a cold place until next day. Send to table with whipped cream.
A gelatine custard of the sort that carried nearly every American dessert course between 1880 and 1930. It is straightforward, but the gelatine measurement and the near-raw whites both need translating.
- Half a box of gelatineBoxes of granulated gelatine of the period generally held about an ounce divided into four packets, so half a box is roughly 1/2 oz, or two modern envelopes (about 4 1/2 teaspoons). That will set firmly enough to unmold; for a softer, spoonable cream use 1 1/2 envelopes.
- Soak firstThe quarter cup of water is the soaking water for the gelatine, not an addition to the milk. Give it five to ten minutes to swell before it goes into the hot milk, or you will get undissolved grains.
- Do not let it boil hardOnce the yolks go in, the mixture must stay below a simmer. Bring it only to the point where it coats a spoon, around 175-180F. A double boiler makes this easy; direct heat will scramble the yolks.
- The whitesThe recipe has them beaten stiff and stirred into the hot custard just before it comes off the fire, which does not reliably bring them to a safe temperature. Use pasteurized eggs, or whip the whites into a hot sugar syrup as a meringue before folding them in.
- Why it separatesSpanish cream characteristically sets in two layers: a denser jelly below and a pale foam above, the beaten whites rising as the mixture chills. If you beat it smooth after chilling begins, you lose the effect.
- Vanilla when nearly coldThe instruction is sound. Alcohol-based extract loses much of its aroma in a hot mixture, so hold it until the custard is just warm.
- The moldRinsing with cold water rather than oiling leaves a film that helps the cream release cleanly. To turn out, dip the mold briefly in warm water and invert onto a chilled plate.
- Chilling and yieldOvernight is not excessive; the gelatine continues to firm for several hours. A pint of milk plus three eggs, with the whites folded in, wants a mold of about a quart and serves four to six.
Spanish cream belongs to the family of moulded gelatine desserts that spread through English and American kitchens once commercial granulated gelatine, sold in papers by the box, replaced the laborious business of boiling calves' feet for stock. Cookbooks of the 1890s and after are thick with them: charlottes, snows, whips, blancmanges and creams, all trading on the same trick of a set custard that could be turned out of a decorative tin mould. The name is generally taken to be traditional rather than geographic; there is little in the dish that is Spanish, and it appears interchangeably in period books as Spanish cream, Spanish jelly or velvet cream. What made it a fixture of the cold-dessert chapter was practicality in a house with an icebox but no refrigerator: it was made the day before, needed no oven, and the two-layer set is often said to have given a plain milk pudding the look of something contrived.