No. 3124

Zephyr of Rice with Pineapple

Zephyr de Riz a l'Ananas

Cook half a pound of blanched rice in milk; when sweetened withdraw it to a slower fire to let attain more consistency, and then finish with a large piece of fresh butter divided in pats. Ten minutes later incorporate into it two or three spoonfuls of crushed chestnuts and six egg-yolks, one after the other, and lastly the half of five beaten whites mixed with three spoonfuls of whipped cream. Add to this preparation five to six spoonfuls of candied pineapple cut in small dice, and pour the whole into a timbale mold previously buttered and glazed with fine sugar and fecula. Lay the mold in a saucepan on a small trivet with hot water reaching to a third of its height, and boil the liquid; remove it to a much lower fire or else to a slack oven, and cook the zephyr for three-quarters of an hour. Finally unmold it on a dish and surround with small slices of preserved pineapple; cover these with vanilla syrup, and serve a sauce-boat of pineapple sauce as for Roman triumvirate fritters (No. 3050).

SWEET ENTREMETS-COLD (Entremets de Douceur-Froids).

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For the Modern Kitchen

A rice pudding lightened with meringue and steamed in a water bath — Ranhofer's "zephyr" means it should come out of the mold trembling, not sliced like a cake. The hinge is the bain-marie temperature: once the water is brought to a boil the heat must drop, because a rolling boil will inflate and then collapse the egg whites and leave the pudding weeping.

Blanched riceThis means rice parboiled briefly in water and drained, to wash off surface starch and any raw taste, before it goes into the milk. Use a short or medium grain; half a pound is about a cup and a quarter. Ranhofer does not say how much milk, but the rice will take up a good deal over the long slow cooking.
SpoonfulsRanhofer's "spoonful" is generally taken to mean a tablespoon. The measure is genuinely loose here — two to three tablespoons of chestnut and five to six of pineapple are guides to proportion, not weights.
Crushed chestnutsCooked, peeled chestnuts mashed to a paste. Unsweetened canned or vacuum-packed chestnut purée is the direct modern substitute; sweetened crème de marrons will push the pudding sugary.
FeculaPotato starch. It is dusted with the sugar over the buttered mold so the pudding releases cleanly; cornstarch does the same job.
Only half the whitesFive whites are beaten but only half the volume goes in, folded with three tablespoons of whipped cream. The rest is surplus — cut to two or three whites if you would rather not waste them, keeping the whipped cream.
Slack ovenAbout 275–300F. Set the mold on a trivet or folded towel in a deep pan, hot water a third of the way up, bring the water to a boil on the stovetop, then transfer to the low oven for 45 minutes. The center should be just set and quivering.
Candied and preserved pineappleTwo different products: candied is the firm sugared dice folded in, preserved is fruit in heavy syrup for the garnish. Well-drained pineapple in syrup will serve for both if candied is unavailable, though the dice will bleed a little moisture into the pudding.
UnmoldingRest the mold five minutes out of the water before turning out, and run a thin knife around the rim. A zephyr this soft can slump if it is inverted onto a cold plate — warm the dish first.
YieldRanhofer does not give a mold size or a number of servings; something around a quart and a half suits the quantities, serving eight or so as a dessert course.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the repertoire he cooked at Delmonico's in New York, and the sweet entremets section is where the French kitchen's fondness for structured, molded desserts is most visible. A zephyr is a name given to preparations lightened with beaten whites so they come to table airy rather than dense — the same logic as a soufflé, but stabilized by rice and yolks so it will survive being unmolded. Pineapple, candied and preserved, appears repeatedly in Ranhofer's dessert list as a marker of an ambitious table, though by the 1890s steamship carriage and canning had brought the fruit within much wider reach. The cross-reference to No. 3050 for the sauce is typical of the book, which assumes a reader working through a professional kitchen's whole system rather than cooking a single dish.