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Maraschino Cheese
Melt a little isinglass in hot water; whip one and one-half pints of thick cream to a stiff froth, and mix with it the dissolved isinglass, the strained juice of one lemon, and three wineglassfuls of maraschino. Stir the above over ice until well mixed and on the point of freezing, then turn it into a mould and pack it in ice till quite firm. When ready to serve, dip the mould in tepid water, wipe, and turn the cheese onto a glass or fancy dish.
A molded cream dessert from the Waldorf's cold kitchen, set with isinglass and flavored with true maraschino liqueur. The technique is straightforward; the archaic setting agent and the loose measures are what need translating.
- "Cheese" means a mold, not dairyIn this period a "cheese" was anything set firm in a mold and turned out in a cheese-like shape — lemon cheese, damson cheese, cream cheese in the old sense. No actual cheese is involved here.
- Isinglass to gelatinIsinglass is collagen from sturgeon swim bladders, the standard setting agent before commercial leaf and powdered gelatin. Substitute plain gelatin; "a little" is genuinely unquantified, and any modern figure is a guess — for 1.5 pints of cream something on the order of a scant tablespoon of powder, or three sheets, is a reasonable starting point. Err low: an over-set cream turns rubbery rather than sliceable.
- The hinge: temper the gelatinThe dissolved gelatin must be warm but not hot, and it must go into the cream in a thin stream while whisking. Poured in a lump onto cold whipped cream it seizes instantly into threads and strings that will not disperse, and the finished cheese will be flecked with clear rubbery filaments.
- WineglassfulsA wineglass in this period is generally reckoned at about 2 fluid ounces, so three is roughly 6 oz — three quarters of a cup of liqueur into 1.5 pints of cream. That is a strong dose, and alcohol weakens a gel, so allow for it when judging the gelatin.
- Maraschino means the liqueurNot the syrup from a jar of dyed cherries. Maraschino is a clear, sweetened but faintly bitter cherry-pit liqueur; Luxardo is the common bottling. The bright red cocktail cherry took the name much later and tastes nothing like it.
- Thick creamHeavy or whipping cream at 36 percent or above. British double cream at 48 percent gives a firmer, less airy set.
- Ice instead of a freezer"Stir over ice until on the point of freezing" means a bowl set in an ice bath, worked until the mixture thickens visibly. "Pack it in ice" is ice packed around the mould; a refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours does the same job, and the freezer is not wanted — this is a set cream, not an ice.
- Unmolding and yieldA few seconds in tepid water, wiped dry, then inverted onto a chilled dish. The quantity fills a 1.5-quart mold and serves eight to ten; it is rich and the liqueur is assertive, so small portions.
Oscar Tschirky's book catches a moment when the elaborate molded cream — bavarois, charlotte, "cheese" — was still the expected close to a formal hotel dinner, and when isinglass rather than boxed gelatin was what a professional larder kept for setting it. Maraschino itself came from the Dalmatian coast around Zadar, distilled from marasca cherries and their crushed stones, and it was already an established export from Zadar houses in the eighteenth century; by the 1890s it was a fixture in New York hotel kitchens, used to perfume creams, ices and fruit as often as it was drunk. Calling the result a "cheese" is older English usage, the same logic that gives us damson cheese and lemon cheese: not a dairy product, but something pressed or set in a mold and turned out whole.