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Peach Charlotte
Peel six peaches, cut them in halves and take out their stones; chop them in little pieces, put them in a basin, sprinkle some vanilla sugar over and one wineglassful of rum. Cut some thin slices of cake into fingers and line a charlotte mould with them, letting them overlap each other. Stand the mould in a basin and surround it with pounded ice. If fifteen minutes put a layer of peaches at the bottom of the mould. Whip a little unset jelly with some maraschino, then pour sufficient into the mould to cover the peaches. Leave it till the jelly has set, then put in another layer of peaches and some more jelly; continue in the same manner till the mould is full, allowing the jelly to set before another layer is put in. Lay a cover over the mould and keep it in ice for half an hour. Turn the charlotte out of the mould onto a dish, dip a paste-brush in some maraschino and brush all round to flavor it. Peel three whole peaches, cut them in quarters, garnish round the base of the charlotte with them, pour some maraschino syrup over, and serve.
A moulded, unbaked charlotte set with jelly rather than cream, so the whole thing depends on controlling the setting point of the gelatin. Everything else is assembly.
- The hinge: "unset jelly"This means clear gelatin jelly that has been dissolved, flavored, and cooled to the point where it is syrupy and just beginning to thicken but still pours. Poured hot it will melt into the fruit and soak the cake to mush; left too long it sets in the jug. Keep the jelly in a bowl of warm water alongside your work and check it every few minutes.
- MeasuresA wineglassful in this period is about 2 fluid ounces, or a quarter cup. Vanilla sugar is granulated sugar stored with a split vanilla pod; a teaspoon of vanilla extract stirred into two tablespoons of sugar does the same job.
- MaraschinoThe clear, dry cherry liqueur, not the syrup from a jar of neon cherries. "Maraschino syrup" for the finish means the liqueur sweetened or let down with simple syrup; adjust to taste.
- Pounded iceThe recipe chills by packing the mould in a basin of crushed ice, the ordinary method of the period. A refrigerator will hold the charlotte more evenly, but the ice bath firms each layer faster.
- The cake liningThin fingers of plain sponge or pound cake, cut to the height of the mould and overlapped so no jelly escapes. Savoiardi (ladyfingers) will serve if you have no cake to slice. Trim the tops flush after the mould is filled so the charlotte sits level when inverted.
- Mould and yieldA charlotte mould is a plain straight-sided or slightly flared tin; sizes vary, so choose one the six chopped peaches and the jelly will fill.
- A printer's slipThe text reads "If fifteen minutes," which is a misprint for "In fifteen minutes." Read it as a quarter of an hour after the lined mould has been set in the ice, before the first layer of peaches goes in.
- Layering timeEach layer needs to be firm before the next goes in, or the fruit floats and the tiers blur. Allow enough time per layer for the jelly to set -- longer in the refrigerator than in ice -- and expect the whole assembly to take some hours before the final half hour of chilling the recipe calls for.
- Turning outDip the mould in warm water for five to ten seconds, no longer, and invert onto a chilled dish. A jelly-set charlotte will slump if the room is warm, so garnish with the quartered peaches and serve it straight away.
The charlotte family is a nineteenth-century hotel staple: a lined mould filled with fruit, cream, or custard and turned out whole, descended from the baked apple charlotte and refined into the cold charlotte russe generally credited to Antonin Car"me in the early 1800s. Oscar Tschirky's version replaces the usual bavarian cream with clear jelly, which makes a lighter, more transparent dessert suited to a summer service and shows off the peaches as distinct layers. The reliance on pounded ice is a reminder that this was made in a commercial kitchen with a daily ice delivery, not a home one.