No. 3197

Pains" of Strawberries with Cream-Small

Petits Pains de Fraises a la Creme

Decorate the sides and bottom of a dozen timbale molds (No. 1, Fig. 137) that have been on ice with fresh strawberries cut in two, being careful to dip each piece in half-set jelly before applying it; then coat them with jelly, leaving an empty space in the center and fill this with a puree of candied pineapple mingled with some jelly and two spoonfuls of kirsch. Incrust a dome-shaped or pyramidical mold on ice, fill it with a puree of strawberries, to which melted gelatine has been added; thicken on ice, and let it get quite hard. Fasten on a cold dish a bottom of Genoese cake (No. 3239), slightly wider than the open part of the mold; scoop it out lightly so as to permit the strawberry "pain" to stand upright inside of it, then mask it over with apricot marmalade (No. 3675). At the last moment unmold the pyramid on this and let it stand till quite cold, then cover quickly with a bavarois preparation (No. 3135) flavored with lemon peel and vanilla and thickened on ice when needed. Unmold the small "pains" and dress them at once around the cream.

← No. 3196 "pain" of Chestnuts a la Beotie Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3198 Peaches a la Louvoisienne →

For the Modern Kitchen

A late-nineteenth-century composed cold entremet: a gelatin-set strawberry pyramid coated in Bavarian cream, ringed by a dozen jelly-lined individual molds. Nothing here is difficult, but it is all a race against melting, so the sequencing matters more than any single step.

Work cold, and stage everything firstThe hinge of the whole dish is that each layer must be set before the next goes on, and the coating cream must be poured at the moment it begins to thicken. Have the jelly, the pineapple purée, the apricot glaze and the bavarois all made and held at their working temperatures before you unmold anything.
"Incrust on ice" means a salted ice bath"Incrust on ice" means bedding the mold down in crushed ice so it chills from all sides — the recipe specifies ice only, with no quantity or temperature. Keep the ice packed close and work quickly; a refrigerator shelf alone chills a purée this wet too slowly.
Timbale moldsThe book points to its own mold No. 1, Fig. 137: a small straight-sided or slightly tapered metal mold, without a stated capacity. Chill them thoroughly, and to unmold dip for two or three seconds in warm water rather than trying to coax them out cold.
"Jelly" here is a clear sweet geléeNot preserves. A lightly sweetened, kirsch- or lemon-scented gelatin syrup, used at the half-set stage as glue for the strawberry halves and again as a clear coating.
Gelatin quantities are not givenThis recipe leaves the amount to the cook, as it does for the jelly and the bavarois. Modern practice for a puree firm enough to unmold as a freestanding pyramid runs around 1 tablespoon (one 1/4-oz packet) of powdered gelatin per 2 cups of puree; test a spoonful on a cold plate before committing the whole mold.
Apricot marmaladeNo. 3675 is a strained, boiled-down apricot glaze, closer to a thick sieved jam than to citrus marmalade. Warm it to brushing consistency; it both seals the Genoese and keeps the cake from drinking the strawberry purée.
GenoeseA whole-egg sponge baked in a sheet or round, firm enough to cut a clean base and hollow slightly. A day-old sponge scoops far more neatly than a fresh one.
Bavarois coatingNo. 3135 is a cooked custard base lightened with whipped cream and set with gelatin. For pouring over the pyramid it wants to be looser than a molded bavarois, thickened over ice only to the point where it coats a spoon and no further.
Yield and serviceOne centerpiece pyramid plus twelve individual "pains"; served as a cold entremet, that is twelve portions. Assemble no more than an hour ahead and keep refrigerated until the moment it goes to the table.

A Little History

Pain here means loaf or block, the old French kitchen's word for anything packed solid into a mold and turned out whole, whether savory forcemeat or, as here, fruit purée bound with gelatin. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, gathered this and a few thousand other formulas into The Epicurean (1894), a book built on cross-references: the Genoese, the apricot marmalade and the bavarois all live at their own numbers elsewhere, so a cook was expected to be assembling from a repertoire rather than reading a self-contained recipe. Dishes of this kind belonged to the era just before mechanical refrigeration reached restaurant kitchens, when cold work depended on ice cut in winter, stored in ice houses and packed with rock salt in tubs — which is why the instructions keep returning to the ice rather than to a temperature, and why a strawberry pyramid standing upright on a cake base was worth the trouble as a display piece.