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Charlotte-Russe (Cut stale sponge-cake into)
Cut stale sponge-cake into slices about half an inch thick and line three molds with them, leaving a space of half an inch between each slice; set the molds where they will not be disturbed until the filling is ready; take a deep tin pan and fill about onethird full of either snow or pounded ice, and into this set another pan that will hold at least four quarts. Into a deep bowl or pail (a whip-churn is better) put one and a half pints of cream (if the cream is thick take one pint of cream and a half pint of milk), whip to a froth, and when the bowl is full, skim the froth into the pan which is standing on the ice, and repeat this until the cream is all froth; then with the spoon draw the froth to one side, and you will find that some of the cream has gone back to milk; turn this into the bowl again, and whip as before; when the cream is all whipped, stir into it two-thirds cup powdered sugar, one teaspoon vanilla, and half a box gelatine, which has been soaked in cold water enough to cover it for one hour and then dissolved in boiling water enough to dissolve it (about half a cup), stir from the bottom of the pan until it begins to grow stiff; fill the molds and set them on the ice in the pan for one hour, or until they are sent to the table. When ready to dish them, loosen lightly at the sides and turn out on a flat dish; have the cream ice-cold when you begin to whip it, and it is a good plan to put a lump of ice into the cream while whipping it. - M. Parloa.
A cold gelatin-set whipped cream in a sponge-cake shell, written before mechanical refrigeration, which is why so much of the text is about ice. The hinge is temperature: everything must stay cold except the dissolved gelatin, and that must be cooled to barely warm before it meets the cream or it will set in threads.
- The gelatinBoxes of gelatine in this period commonly held about 1 oz, though sizes varied, so "half a box" is roughly 1/2 oz — about two of today's 1/4-oz envelopes, or some 4 1/2 teaspoons. Soak in cold water, then dissolve in about 1/2 cup hot water as directed, but let it cool until it is only tepid before stirring it into the cold cream.
- Tempering, not dumpingPour the cooled gelatin into the whipped cream in a thin stream while stirring from the bottom. Poured in hot, or all at once, it seizes into rubbery strings that will not disperse.
- The creamModern heavy cream is about 36% fat and behaves like the "thick cream" the recipe anticipates, so use the 1 pint cream plus 1/2 pint milk version, or simply 1 1/2 pints (3 cups) heavy cream. The skim-off-the-froth method is a workaround for hand whisks; an electric mixer to soft peaks does the same job in three minutes.
- The whip-churn and the iceA whip-churn was a plunger-type churn, a cylinder with a perforated dasher worked up and down to aerate cream. The nested pans are an ice bath — a large bowl set inside a bigger one of ice water gives the same result. Chilling the bowl and beaters matters more than the lump of ice in the cream itself.
- Lining the moldsThe recipe leaves half-inch gaps between the cake slices. If you want a solid wall, cut the slices to wedge tightly, or line with ladyfingers, which is the usual modern shortcut.
- Setting timeOne hour on ice is the minimum for a barely-standing set. Four hours in the refrigerator, or overnight, gives a charlotte that unmolds cleanly and slices.
- UnmoldingRun a thin knife around the edge, dip the mold in warm water for five seconds, and invert onto a chilled flat plate. A warm serving dish will slump the edges within minutes.
- YieldThree small molds, about 6 to 8 servings in total; it also sets well in a single mold of about 2 quarts.
Charlotte russe is generally traced to Antonin Carême, who is said to have renamed his charlotte à la parisienne in honor of Tsar Alexander I, in whose service he briefly cooked; the older English charlotte was a hot baked pudding of buttered bread and fruit, and the russe is its cold, cream-filled descendant. Its appearance here says a good deal about how such books were assembled — the recipe is credited to M. Parloa, that is Maria Parloa, the New England cooking-school teacher and author whose work was reprinted, credited and uncredited, across the whole regional cookbook trade. The elaborate business with pans of pounded ice is a reminder that a cold dessert was a display of resources: ice had to be cut in winter, packed in sawdust, and bought through the summer, and a household that could serve a charlotte in July was announcing something.