No. 3167

Flamri of Cream

Flamri a la Creme

Pour into a saucepan one quart of white wine and two glassfuls of water; add a bunch of aromatics and a grain of salt; let the liquid come to a boil, then incorporate into it eight ounces of good semolina; continue to cook for a quarter of an hour on the side of the range; when done sweeten with eight ounces of powdered sugar, add a piece of lemon peel and keep the preparation off the fire for ten minutes; let get cold, stirring from time to time. Incorporate slowly into this preparation about two glassfuls of good double cream, beating it vigorously on ice; pour it into a charlotte mold dipped in cold water and let get firm on ice for one hour. Unmold on a cold dish and serve with a sweetened puree of red fruits, either strawberries or raspberries.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A wine-cooked semolina pudding lightened with whipped cream and turned out of a charlotte mold. It sets on starch alone, so the cooking of the semolina and the temperature at which the cream goes in decide whether it stands up.

The hinge: fold cream into cold, not warm, semolinaThe semolina must be completely cool and slack before the whipped cream goes in, or the cream melts and the flamri will slump when unmolded. Ranhofer's "beating it vigorously on ice" means keeping the bowl over ice throughout; stir the cooled semolina smooth first, then fold in the cream in three additions.
GlassfulsRanhofer's "glassful" is not a fixed measure, but in The Epicurean it generally works out at about half a cup. Two glassfuls of water is roughly 1 cup; two glassfuls of double cream, roughly 1 cup, which whips to about 2 cups.
Semolina and sugar by weightEight ounces of semolina is about 1 1/3 cups of the coarse durum kind (not fine flour-grade semolina, which turns pasty). Eight ounces of "powdered" sugar in 1894 means finely ground granulated — use caster or superfine sugar, not modern confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch.
"On the side of the range"A coal range was hottest over the firebox and cooler at the edges; this is the nineteenth-century way of saying low heat. Cook the semolina at a bare simmer for the full 15 minutes, stirring often, or the grain stays gritty and the bottom scorches.
The bunch of aromaticsUnspecified, as usual in this book. A stick of cinnamon, a few coriander seeds and a blade of mace suit the wine; strain them out before adding the semolina, and add the lemon peel only at the end so it stays fresh.
The wine stays inA quart of white wine simmered for fifteen minutes still carries some alcohol and most of its acidity. Choose a dry wine you would drink; anything oaky or sweet dominates the finished cream.
Chilling timeOne hour on ice is optimistic for a quart-and-a-half mold. Give it four hours or overnight in the refrigerator, covered, and dip the mold in warm water for a few seconds before turning out.
Yield and the sauceA standard charlotte mold holds about 1 1/2 quarts and serves eight. For the purée, crush a pound of strawberries or raspberries raw with sugar to taste and a squeeze of lemon, then sieve — cooking it dulls the color that is the whole point of the contrast.

A Little History

Flamri belongs to the family of moulded semolina entremets; its origins and the source of its name are not documented. The classic version, as Escoffier later set it down, binds the wine-cooked semolina with eggs and poaches it in the mold; Charles Ranhofer's cream variant here dispenses with the eggs and relies on whipped cream and cold instead, which makes it lighter and puts it firmly among the cold entremets of Delmonico's dessert service. It is usually paired with an uncooked purée of strawberries or raspberries — a plain, pale, wine-scented pudding was meant to be a background for the fruit.