No. 3013

Cream Pamela—Fried

Creme Frite Pamela

Put four eggs, two yolks, four ounces of sugar and the peel of one lemon into a bowl, beat them up with a whip and dilute with a pint of milk, then run it through a sieve. Butter and sugar twelve six-sided molds, the size of timbale molds No. 2, Fig. 137, but only half as high; fill the bottoms with a layer of candied cherries cut in four, lay on these candied pineapple and angelica washed in hot water and cut in small quarter-inch squares; scatter broken macaroons over the fruit; pour on a little of the strained preparation to soak, and prevent floating to the top, then finish filling. Place these molds in a stewpan and pour in the bottom boiling water to reach to half their height; set this in a moderate oven to poach the cream, and as soon as done remove from the oven and let get cold in the water. When cold unmold them, roll in biscuit dust, dip in beaten eggs and finish by rolling in white bread-crumbs, smooth with the blade of a knife, then plunge them into hot frying fat and fry to a fine golden color, drain on a cloth and bestrew with vanilla sugar, then serve with a Bischoff sauce, made as follows:

Bischoff Sauce.—Place half a pint of white wine and as much syrup into a saucepan; boil and thicken this liquid with a spoonful of fecula diluted in a little cold water; add the peel of a lemon and the same of an orange cut in Julienne and previously blanched, also two ounces of almonds and two ounces of shredded pistachios, two ounces each of seeded Malaga and Smyrna raisins and of currants, thoroughly washed in hot water; boil a few times, then serve.

← No. 3012 Cream of Chestnuts with Caramel Sugar Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3014 Cream with Apples →

For the Modern Kitchen

A set custard, chilled, breaded and deep-fried — the same principle as Italian crema fritta, dressed up with candied fruit and a wine-and-raisin sauce. Everything depends on the custard being cold and firm before it goes near the fat.

Chill it properlyThe recipe itself lets the molds get cold in their water bath; that is the minimum. Refrigerate them for at least four hours, and preferably overnight, before unmolding. A custard that is merely cool will slump or burst its crumb coat in the fryer.
"A moderate oven"No temperature is given; a custard in a water bath wants something in the region of 325 to 350F. The molds sit in a water bath reaching halfway up their sides, and the custard is done when it is set at the edges with only a slight tremble at the centre — on the order of 25 to 35 minutes for molds this small.
The moldsThe book does not state the capacity of timbale mold No. 2, so at half height a 3-ounce dariole or small ramekin is a reasonable guess. Any small metal mold of 1/3 to 1/2 cup will do; butter and sugar them as directed, since the sugar coat helps release the custard cleanly.
FeculaPotato starch. Cornstarch behaves nearly the same here. The original says only "a spoonful" for the pint of wine and syrup; slake a teaspoon or two in cold water before it goes into the boiling sauce and judge the body you want.
Biscuit dustDried sponge cake or ladyfingers ground fine — not modern biscuit crumbs. The first light coat of it dries the custard surface so the egg wash and breadcrumbs will grip. Skipping it makes the coating slide.
Angelica and candied pineappleCandied angelica stem is still sold by specialist confectioners and is worth seeking for its colour; candied citron or candied orange peel substitutes without complaint. Washing candied fruit in hot water removes the sugar syrup coating so it does not weep into the custard.
Malaga and Smyrna raisinsMalaga are large muscat raisins, sold seeded; Smyrna are the pale sultanas. Ordinary raisins and golden raisins cover both.
FryingFat at 350 to 360F. Hotter and the crumb browns before the interior warms; cooler and the coating soaks. Fry two or three at a time, a minute or two to a deep gold, and drain at once.
The syrup in the sauceHalf a pint of sugar syrup; a simple syrup of equal sugar and water will serve, though period syrups were often heavier than that. With half a pint of white wine and the dried fruit this yields a generous sauce for twelve — reduce the batch by half if you want a spooned garnish rather than a pool.
YieldTwelve small fritters, one or two to a serving. They must be served immediately; a fried custard that stands goes soft.

A Little History

Fried cream belongs to a long European family of dishes in which a stiff custard is set, cut or unmolded, crumbed and fried — Italian crema fritta, Spanish leche frita, French crème frite — all of them a way of turning a soft preparation into something that can be picked up and eaten hot. Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, gave a long chapter of such hot entremets in The Epicurean (1894), the sweet course that came between the roast and the dessert proper in a long service à la russe menu. The name Pamela follows the restaurant habit of the period of attaching a woman's name to a garnish or a variation; such names were rarely explained and often commemorated a patron or a passing fashion rather than anything traceable. The Bischoff sauce appears to take its name from Bischof, the German spiced wine punch, and the raisins, currants, almonds and blanched julienne of citrus peel in it are the standard nineteenth-century vocabulary of a hot fruit sauce for puddings.