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Creams
CALEDONIA CREAM.-Beat together in a bowl for three quarters of an hour two ounces of rasberry jam, two of currant jelly, two of sifted loaf two ounces of rasberry jam, two of currant jelly, two of sifted loaf sugar and the whites of two eggs, previously whipped. A very pretty cream. Carrie Wright, Knoxville, Tenn.
FROZEN WHIPPED CREAM. - One of the handsomest deserts or for an evening party are different creams frozen in glasses. In winter time when cold enough, simply expose them to outer air, or in summer time place the glasses in a box or can of pounded ice. In whipping the cream it is best to set it on ice. The following recipes are some I have used: Coffee Cream : - Mix one quart thick cream, one cup each strong black coffee and sugar in a tin pail or deep pan; place on ice and whip with egg beater to a froth; pile up in stem glasses, freeze as above and serve in same glasses.
Chocolate Cream: -Put one cup milk over the fire with one cup sugar and four ounces sweet chocolate (a cupful) grated and beat till it is all dissolved ; strain into another vessel and let cool; whip one quart thick cream in a pail and add chocolate milk while whipping; flavor with vanilla and finish as above. Maraschino Cream: -Mix one quart cream, one cup marashino liquor, one-half cup sugar; whip to a froth and finish as above. Vanilla Cream: -One quart thick cream and three quarters cup sugar; flavor with vanilla and whip to a froth; pile in glasses and freeze as directed . - Mrs. L. Edwin Hocket, New Orleans, La.
ORANGE CREAM.-Soak half an ounce of Coxe's gelatine in half a gill of cold water; and also the grated rind of one orange in the orange juice cold water; and also the grated rind of one orange in the orange juice each half an hour; then melt the gelatine over boiling water and add juice and rind and when quite hot, the yolks of two eggs (use whites for lemon ice) beaten with half a pint of sugar, stir till it thickens, add threequarters of a pint of cream, and strain into a mould wet with cold water; when cold serve with whipped cream. -Sadie Brown, Chattanooga, Tenn...
STRAWBERRY CREAM. - First make small cases with fine bookpaper, like writing paper not ruled; six sheets will make fifty cases by fitting a band paper not ruled ; six sheets will make fifty cases by fitting a band of paper to the outside of a very small tumbler or wine glass or some similar small shape. The band of paper when cut to fit will form a curve.
Cut as many such pieces as are needed from the sheets and then placing three or four together; cut both top and bottom edges into fringe a quarter of an inch or less in depth; make some corn starch paste very stiff and paste the ends of the bands together, forming cup shapes, then cut around the edges, press the fringed bottom edges of the cups on the paste, the fringe bent outward, and the cups are made. Now make a sponge cake; beat together rapidly for ten minutes the yolks of fifteen eggs, three rounded cups sugar, (1½ pounds) and one half cup water, then add four rounded cups flour, (18 ounces) and last, the wellfrothed whites of fifteen eggs; spread thickly on sheets of blank paper not greased, and bake in a quick oven about six minutes; careful baking is necessary SO it may not is necessary so it may not be dried or burned; brush paper underside with water and pull it off; should any of the sheets become too dry to roll or bend lay them on top of each other after wetting the paper and let lie half an hour; cut out pieces of cake by same paper pattern the cases were cut by, but a trifle shorter and line the cases with them; no bottom of cake is needed, but little square pieces can be pushed down inside if wished. This recipe is for fifty cases, but the best way is to buy sheets of sponge cake at a baker's as it will then be perfect and will roll or bend easily. A short time before serving fill the charlottes with the following cream: one quart strawberries, three pints thick sweet cream, one cup milk, one pound sugar, (two cups) one and a half ounce gelatine; put fruit and sugar in a bowl, mash and rub through a seive; disolve gelatine in the cup milk set where it will warm gradually; when dissolved put cream in a pail, set on ice and with egg beater whip to a froth; pour in gelatine, continue whipping, add strawberry pulp or syrup and when firm enough, before quite, fill the charlottes with it. These must be kept in a cold place, and this is the case with all whipped cream. A plain cream without fruit or gelatine, flavored with strawberry extract can be used.-Mrs. S. A. T., Nashville, Tenn.
VANILLA CREAM. -Two and one half cups milk boiled with one cup sugar, add one beaten egg, one tablespoon each of butter and corn starch, the latter disssolved in half cup cold milk; boil and stir for a few minutes and add one teaspoon vanilla. -Carrie E. Wood, Knoxville, Tenn.
A cluster of contributed cream recipes ranging from a two-minute whisked confection to a full charlotte project with hand-built paper cases. Most of it translates cleanly; one of them does not.
- Caledonia Cream is raw egg white, never cookedTwo whipped egg whites are beaten with jam, jelly and sugar and served as-is. Nothing in the method brings the egg above room temperature, and neither the sugar nor the fruit acid is present in quantity or concentration sufficient to inactivate Salmonella. Skip it and use a current recipe if you want an uncooked meringue-style cream.
- The other creams here are cooked or contain no eggThe four frozen whipped creams are cream, sugar and flavouring only. Vanilla Cream is boiled with a beaten egg. Orange Cream brings two yolks into hot gelatine and is stirred until it thickens, which is a proper stirred custard if you hold it around 175F and do not let it break.
- "Thick cream" and "a quart"Thick cream means heavy or double cream at 36 percent fat or above; ordinary supermarket whipping cream works, ultra-pasteurised whips more slowly. A quart is 4 cups, so the coffee, chocolate, maraschino and vanilla creams each yield roughly 2 quarts of whipped volume, or eight to ten stemmed glasses.
- Gills and half-pints of sugarA gill is half a cup, so half a gill of cold water is 1/4 cup. "Half a pint of sugar" in the Orange Cream is a volume measure, about 1 cup, not a weight.
- Coxe's gelatineCoxe's gelatine "a brand widely advertised in this period, sold by weight. Half an ounce is about 14 g, or two envelopes of modern powdered gelatine; the 1 1/2 ounces in the Strawberry Cream is roughly six envelopes, which is a firm set rather than a soft one. Bloom powdered gelatine in cold liquid before warming it."
- Freezing in glassesFreezing in glasses "these are still-frozen desserts, not churned ice cream. The whipped cream carries enough air that a modern freezer gives a passable semifreddo texture within a few hours; texture deteriorates with longer storage. The original simply sets the glasses in a box or can of pounded ice, or in winter in the outer air."
- Maraschino means the liqueurMaraschino here is the clear cherry liqueur, not the syrup from a jar of dyed cherries. A full cup to a quart of cream is a heavy dose of alcohol, which also slows the freeze; half that is closer to modern taste.
- "A quick oven" for the sponge sheets"A quick oven" for the sponge sheets "in period usage this is roughly 400 to 425F, though the terms were never exact. Fifteen eggs and 18 ounces of flour spread thin on paper bakes in about six minutes at that heat; use parchment rather than plain writing paper and it will lift off without wetting."
- The paper casesThe fringed hand-pasted cases are the fussiest part of the page and the author says outright that bought sponge sheets are better. Paper baking cups, small ramekins lined with strips of jelly-roll sponge, or ladyfingers stood upright all give the same charlotte.
"Caledonia" is the old Latin name for Scotland, and jam or jelly beaten to a stiff pink foam with egg white belongs to the same family as Scottish and English "snows". The rest of the page shows how the ice trade changed Southern entertaining: by the time these recipes were collected, ice was shipped and stored well enough that a New Orleans contributor could assume her readers had a box of pounded ice in July, and could offer frozen coffee and chocolate creams served in the same stemmed glasses they set in it. The Strawberry Cream is a charlotte russe in all but name, lined with sponge instead of ladyfingers, and the note to buy the sponge sheets from a baker is a small window on a household economy where commercial bakeries were already doing the tedious work.<br><br>Contributors are named by town, which is typical of the community cookbooks of the period: Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville and New Orleans between them supply five recipes for what is essentially the same luxury, sweetened cream.