No. 3144

Charlotte a la Metternich

Prepare a paste made by beating three whole eggs in a basin, and when creamy add half a pound of sugar, as much sifted flour, a pinch of fecula and some orange sugar (No. 3165). The paste should be quite firm. Then force it through a pocket on a buttered and floured baking sheet, having the pieces resemble lady fingers all of the same size, and bake in a moderate oven. Detach them from the sheet and cut one end off of about forty and leave till cold leaning against a support, so as to have them slightly bent on the uncut ends. Dip the cut end of each biscuit into sugar cooked to "small crack" (No. 171), drain it off and fasten the cakes upright against the thickness of a round flat of office paste; fasten each piece with cooked sugar, overlapping them slightly so that they form a pretty basket spread out open on the top. When the sugar is quite cold dress the basket on a dish and fill it with chestnut puree sweetened with vanilla sugar (No. 3165) and then mingled with whipped cream. Surround the base with candied chestnuts dipped in sugar cooked to "small crack."

← No. 3143 Charlotte of Calville Apples Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3145 Charlotte Russe →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a pastry-shop construction rather than a dessert you assemble in ten minutes: a ring of home-made ladyfingers glued upright with boiled sugar into a basket, then filled with chestnut cream. Read the sugar-cooking stage first, because everything structural depends on it.

"Small crack" sugarRanhofer's petit casse sits near the top of the boiling scale, a little below hard crack; tables place it somewhere around 275-290F, and his own No. 171 is the reference rather than any single figure. Below that the joins stay tacky and the basket sags; much above it the syrup sets before you can seat the biscuit. Work fast and keep the pan over the lowest heat so it does not colour.
FeculaNineteenth-century fecula is potato starch. A pinch here lightens the crumb slightly; cornstarch behaves close enough if potato starch is not to hand.
Orange sugar and vanilla sugarNo. 3165 in the same book covers flavoured sugars, made by working sugar with orange zest or with vanilla, then drying and sifting it. Zest rubbed into the sugar with your fingertips until damp and fragrant gives much the same result immediately.
"Force it through a pocket"A pocket is a piping bag. Use a plain tube of about 1/2 inch and pipe fingers of uniform length; the basket only looks right if they match.
Moderate ovenAbout 350F, though "moderate" in period usage covers roughly 325-375F. The biscuits want to dry and set pale gold rather than brown, so watch them from about eight minutes and pull them while still slightly soft in the centre.
Bending the biscuitsThey must be shaped straight from the oven while flexible, leaning against a rolling pin or the edge of a tin. Once cold they snap. Bake in two batches so you are not shaping forty at once.
Office pastePate d'office is a stiff sweet paste used in pastry kitchens for bases and set pieces. It is structural, not really for eating; a firm baked round of sweet shortcrust, or a disc of nougatine, serves the same purpose.
Chestnut fillingUnsweetened chestnut puree, sweetened and lightened with whipped cream, is the modern equivalent; the recipe gives no proportion, so judge it by feel. Fold it in at the last moment and fill the basket just before serving, or the biscuits soften and the glued joints weaken.
YieldForty biscuits build one basket; the recipe states no number of servings. Pipe a few spare fingers; some will break at the cutting or bending stage.

A Little History

Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book is thick with dishes carrying the names of European statesmen, a habit inherited from the French grande cuisine of Careme's generation. Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian chancellor who dominated post-Napoleonic diplomacy until 1848, lent his name to a scatter of such dishes; the association with chestnuts and vanilla cream here gestures at Vienna, though the attribution is conventional rather than documented, and there is no evidence Metternich ever ate one. What the recipe really shows is the late-century pastry chef's appetite for architecture: a case built entirely from biscuit and boiled sugar, filled with a chestnut puree.