No. 3190

Mosaic with Cream

Mosaique a la Creme

Incrust an ogive-shaped mold (Fig. 151) in ice. In this place another mold half an inch less in diameter; fill the inside mold with chopped ice; pour some kirsch jelly between the two molds so as to fill the empty space entirely, and when this gets hard remove the ice from the inside mold, replacing it with warm water, so it can be removed. Cut some Genoese cake (No. 3239) and candies fruits into large uniform squares, add a few candied cherries and with this salpicon fill the empty space in the jelly. Prepare an English vanilla cream (No. 42), cool it on ice and incorporate into it a pint and a half of whipped cream; pour this slowly over the salpicon in such a way that it falls through to the bottom, then set it away on ice for one hour; lastly, dip the mold quickly into hot water, wipe it dry and turn the jelly on a cold dish; serve it at once.

← No. 3189 Marshal Ney Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3191 Moscovite of Strawberries →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Bavarian-style cream set inside a jelly shell, with cake and candied fruit suspended through it like tesserae. The whole thing is an exercise in temperature control, and the original assumes a kitchen with a block of ice in the corner.

The hinge: the jelly lining must be fully set and coldEverything else depends on a firm, evenly chilled kirsch jelly wall before the salpicon and cream go in. If the shell is even slightly soft, the warm-ish cream will melt through it and the mosaic pattern collapses into a marbled mess.
Ice bath, freezer, refrigerator"Incrust in ice" means bedding the mold in a bucket of crushed ice so the jelly sets against the metal from the outside in; some kitchens salted the ice to drive the temperature lower, though Ranhofer does not say so here. A freezer works for the lining stage, and the refrigerator for the hour-long final set, but do not freeze the finished cream or it will go grainy.
The inner moldThe inner mold is half an inch less in diameter, which leaves a jelly wall of roughly a quarter of an inch all round. Chopped ice inside the smaller mold keeps it in place and cold; the warm water at the end simply loosens it. Two nesting stainless bowls or two loaf pans will do the same job if you have no ogive mold.
An ogive moldOgive is the pointed-arch shape of Gothic architecture: a tall mold coming to a point. Any deep, straight-sided mold gives the same effect with less drama.
Kirsch jellyA clear gelatin jelly flavored with kirsch (cherry brandy). Ranhofer's kitchen used sheet gelatin or calf's-foot stock; modern sheet gelatin at about 3 to 4 sheets per cup of liquid gives a jelly firm enough to stand unmolded. Add the kirsch off the heat so the aroma survives.
English vanilla creamThis is crème anglaise — a stirred custard of egg yolks, sugar, milk and vanilla cooked to about 180F. Ranhofer does not say so here, but a molded cream of this kind will need gelatin if it is to hold its shape once turned out; the pint and a half of whipped cream is folded in only after the custard is cold to the touch but not yet setting.
Genoese cakeGénoise, the whole-egg sponge. Day-old cake cuts into clean cubes; fresh cake tears. Cut the cake and candied fruit to a uniform size so the mosaic reads as a pattern rather than rubble.
Pouring the creamPour slowly down one side so it works its way to the bottom and displaces the air around the salpicon. Rushing traps voids that show as holes when the dish is cut.
Unmolding and yieldA quick dip in hot water, three or four seconds, then wipe and invert; any longer and the jelly slumps. The recipe gives no yield, though the quantity of cream suggests a dish for a table of eight or so, and it should go to the table immediately, as the jelly softens fast at room temperature.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer spent more than thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is the record of that kitchen: some three thousand numbered recipes cross-referenced to one another, as this one is to the Genoese cake and the English cream. Mosaïque is a description of the finished cut surface — squares of sponge, candied fruit and cherries suspended in pale cream and framed by a clear jelly, in imitation of inlaid stonework. Molded cold entremets of this kind were showpieces of the late nineteenth-century American restaurant dining room, and they depended on the commercial ice trade more than on the mechanical refrigeration then just coming into use; the elaborate business of nesting one mold inside another and packing both with ice is simply what chilling looked like before the compressor. The genre is close kin to the French bavarois, and its survival today is largely in the panna cotta and the molded jelly, both far plainer things.