No. 3001

Apricots a la Jefferson

Abricots a la Jefferson

Infuse a vanilla bean in a quart of hot milk for half an hour, then take it out and set the milk on the fire; drop into it like rain six ounces of farina. Let this boil a few minutes, then remove from the hot fire to a slower one, so that it continues to cook without boiling. Then add to it six egg-yolks, two ounces of sugar, four tablespoonfuls of whipped cream, and two egg whites beaten to a stiff froth. Butter twelve timbale molds (No. 1, Fig. 137); put into the bottom of each a ring of apricot paste and fill the interior of this ring with a round piece of angelica. Fill the molds with the above preparation and keep them in a bain-marie for twenty-five minutes, then unmold and dress in a circle on a dish. Drain some fine compotes of halved apricots, wipe them well and dress them in a dome in the center of the circle. Cover them over with the apricot syrup reduced with sugar and maraschino. Decorate the intersections of the apricots with halved, freshly skinned almonds and cherries (demi-sucre). Lay on the edge of the dish between each timbale a brandied greengage and a brandied cherry. Place the dish after it has been decorated in the oven for fifteen to twenty minutes and serve with an apricot and kirsch sauce in a sauce-boat, made as follows: Put three gills of apricot pulp into a copper pan, with as much water and half a pound of sugar; let boil up once or twice, then strain the sauce through a fine sieve and add one gill of kirsch to it.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A Ranhofer set piece: twelve individual semolina custards ringed around a dome of poached apricots. The components can all be made ahead, which is the only way it is manageable.

Farina is semolinaSix ounces of farina to a quart of milk gives a stiff, spoon-coating porridge — use semolina or Cream of Wheat, not flour. Rain it in slowly while whisking or it will lump instantly.
The hinge: never let it boil after the yolks go inThe hinge: do not let it boil once the yolks go in -- Ranhofer already moves the farina off the hot fire to "a slower one" so that it cooks without boiling, and the six yolks are stirred in at that lower heat; once they are in, the mixture is a custard and hard boiling will scramble it. Keep it below a simmer when the whipped cream and beaten whites are added so they are not deflated.
Gills and ouncesA gill is half a cup, so three gills of apricot pulp is 1½ cups, with the same water and half a pound (about 1 cup) of sugar; one gill of kirsch is ½ cup. Six ounces of farina is by weight, roughly 1 cup.
Timbale moldsRanhofer specifies his No. 1 timbale mold (Fig. 137); small buttered ramekins, dariole molds or muffin cups stand in. Divide the mixture between twelve of them.
Bain-marie temperatureBain-marie -- Twenty-five minutes assumes the water is held just under a simmer rather than boiling; the recipe does not say whether the bain-marie sits on the stove or in the oven, and gives no temperature. Boiling water makes the custards rise, weep and then collapse when unmolded.
Angelica and demi-sucreAngelica is the candied green stem of Angelica archangelica, sold by continental confectioners and increasingly hard to find; candied citron or a green candied cherry is the usual substitute. "Demi-sucre" cherries are lightly candied ones, softer and less sweet than glacé.
Apricot pasteThe ring in the bottom of each mold is stiff apricot pâte de fruit, thick enough to hold its shape when cut — reduced apricot purée cooked with sugar until it sheets, then cooled and stamped out. Ordinary jam will melt into the custard.
CopperThe sauce pan should be lined or, better, stainless. Acidic fruit pulp in bare copper picks up metal and an off taste.
The final oven stageThe fifteen to twenty minutes in the oven is only to heat the assembled dish through and set the glaze; no temperature is given, the timbales are already cooked, so use a moderate heat and watch that the syrup does not scorch.
YieldTwelve timbales, so twelve servings, though the apricot dome and the brandied fruit are decoration as much as portion.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's across two stints, with a break between them, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his working file — upwards of three thousand recipes plus menus from actual dinners served in New York. The book is full of dishes named for patrons, politicians and public figures in the French restaurant habit of the day, and the Jefferson attribution here looks honorific rather than historical: nothing in the construction is early American, and Thomas Jefferson's own documented enthusiasms ran to ice cream and macaroni rather than semolina timbales. What the recipe does show is the late nineteenth-century restaurant kitchen at full stretch, with candied angelica, brandied greengages, maraschino and kirsch all treated as pantry staples, and a dessert assembled as architecture — a ring of molds, a dome in the middle, decorations at every intersection — because it was meant to be carried into the room and looked at before it was eaten.