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Cream Jelly with Fruit
Soak one ounce of gelatine in one-half pint of milk for four or five hours. Then scald one and a half pints of milk and pour over it, adding at the same time one-half pound of powdered white sugar. Stir over the fire until it is nearly boiling, then strain and divide into two equal parts. Put one-half in a saucepan over the fire and mix in with it the beaten yolks of three eggs; stir it until it begins to thicken, then pour it into a basin and let it cool. Whisk the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth and also beat up one pint of rich cream to a stiff froth. Divide the frothed white of egg into two separate parts, or heaps. As the white gelatine begins to set, whip into it gradually one-half of the white of egg froth in small quantities, alternating with all the whipped cream. Into the yellow gelatine, whip in gradually a little at the time, the other half of the frothed white of egg. Then stir into the yellow gelatine a flavoring of vanilla, and into the white gelatine the strained juice of a lemon. Dampen the inside of a deep fluted mould with cold water, lay in the bottom of it a row of crystallized cherries, then pour in a layer of the white gelatine; allow it to set and then put over it a layer of slices of crystallized apricots or peaches, pour over them a layer of the yellow gelatine, and alternating in this way until the mould is full. Set the mould on ice, and when quite firm, dip a cloth in hot water, wring it out, wrap it round the mould for an instant and turn it out on a glass dish. Serve cream with it.
This is a two-tone Bavarian cream, and it is a handsome piece of Victorian moulding — but the method leaves a large quantity of egg white raw in a dish that is then only chilled, never heated. The notes below explain the problem and translate the archaic terms.
- Why it fails: the whites are never cookedThe yolks are brought to a custard over the fire, but the whites of three eggs are whisked raw and folded into gelatine that is already cooling and setting. Nothing in the remainder of the procedure raises them above refrigerator temperature, so any Salmonella present in the shell eggs survives into the finished dessert.
- Why chilling does not helpSetting the mould on ice holds the jelly firm but does nothing to reduce bacterial load; a sweet, moist, protein-rich gel held for hours while layers set is a hospitable medium.
- Who is most at riskUncooked egg white is the classic vehicle for foodborne illness in old creams, mousses and icings, and the consequences fall hardest on children, pregnant women, the elderly and anyone immunocompromised — exactly the audience a soft, spoonable dessert is usually given to. Use a current recipe for Bavarian cream instead.
- "Gelatine," one ounceFor reference when reading the original: an ounce is about 28 g, roughly four modern quarter-ounce envelopes of powdered gelatine, set into two pints of milk (a half-pint for the soak, a pint and a half scalded) plus a pint of cream. Gelatine of the period varied in strength, which may be why the long cold soak in milk comes first.
- "Powdered white sugar"In 1896 this meant finely ground granulated sugar, not today's cornstarch-blended confectioners' sugar. Half a pound is a little over a cup of granulated sugar " a sicht sweet mixture by modern taste.
- "Crystallized" fruitCandied cherries and candied apricots or peaches, drained and sliced.
- ScaleTwo pints of milk and a pint of cream.
Oscar Tschirky came to the Waldorf as maître d'hôtel in 1893 and put his name to this collection in 1896, at the moment when the elaborate moulded cream — bavarois in French kitchens, "Bavarian cream" on American menus — was the standard cold sweet of a grand hotel. The form is a custard or fruit base lightened with whipped cream and set with gelatine, and its name is generally traced to French chefs working for Bavarian courts in the early nineteenth century rather than to any Bavarian original. What dates this version is the labour: two separately flavoured mixtures, one vanilla and one lemon, poured in alternating bands with candied fruit bedded between them, each layer left to set before the next goes on.