No. 3156

Crown a la Camper

Couronne a la Camper

Coat a border mold with maraschino jelly (No. 3186); fill it with a preparation the same as for "pain" of chestnut a la Beotie (No. 3196), and leave to get quite cold on ice. Unmold when very firm on an exceedingly cold dish; fill the center of the crown three-quarters full with Bar-le-due jelly and finish filling with whipped cream flavored with maraschino, having it slightly sweetened; arrange this in a dome and decorate it through the cornet with some of the same cream; place it in an ice-box for one hour, then serve.

← No. 3155 Cream with Lemon Peel in Pots Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3157 Crown a la Choiseul →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a composed cold sweet built from two other numbers in Ranhofer's book, so the page reads as an assembly note rather than a full recipe. Everything depends on the jelly lining setting hard enough to survive unmolding.

The cross-references are the recipeNo. 3186 is the maraschino jelly and No. 3196 the chestnut "pain" whose preparation is used to fill the mold. Without those two you have only the assembly instructions; look them up before starting.
Border moldA ring mold, plain or fluted, of the kind used for savory borders of rice. The finished crown is a ring with an open center to be filled; the book specifies no size.
Coating the moldThe lining is done by chilling the mold thoroughly, pouring in a few spoonfuls of nearly-set jelly, and rolling it around the interior until it clings, repeating until the coat is even. Rushing this with warm jelly gives a thin patchy shell that tears on unmolding.
MaraschinoThe clear cherry-pit liqueur from Dalmatia, not the syrup from a jar of dyed cocktail cherries. The two are unrelated in flavor and the liqueur is what the recipe means in both the jelly and the cream.
Bar-le-Duc jellyA red or white currant preserve from Bar-le-Duc in Lorraine, traditionally made with the seeds picked out of each berry by hand with a quill. It is still produced, though expensive; a good seedless currant preserve is the nearest substitute.
Through the cornetA cornet is a paper cone rolled and snipped at the tip, Ranhofer's standard piping bag. Whipped cream piped this way must be stiff enough to hold a line but not so far whipped that it turns grainy.
UnmoldingDip the mold briefly in warm, not hot, water and invert onto a plate chilled beforehand; the text insists on an "exceedingly cold dish". A warm dish risks melting the base of the jelly coat.
Serving and yieldServing -- The hour in the ice-box before serving appears to be for firming the piped cream rather than setting anything further. The book gives no yield or holding time.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of his decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows how his kitchen worked: a catalogue of components, numbered and cross-referenced, from which a cook assembled named dishes on demand. Cold molded entremets of this kind — jelly-lined, unmolded, filled with cream and preserve — were the visual centerpiece of a nineteenth-century dessert service, and their appeal was as much architectural as gustatory, which is why so many carry names like couronne, crown. Personal dedications of this sort were routine in French haute cuisine of the period and rarely documented; the honoree behind "à la Camper" is not identified in the book. The Bar-le-Duc jelly in the center is the luxury note: an imported Lorraine preserve whose seeds were removed berry by berry.