No. 3206

Castellane Pudding

Pouding Castellane

Prepare a fine puree of chestnuts, the same as for bavarois with chestnuts (No. 3136); also prepare an English vanilla cream (No. 42), with eight egg-yolks, a quart of milk, four ounces of sugar and half a split vanilla bean. As soon as the cream is done stir into it the puree of chestnuts, also two ounces of dissolved gelatine; pass the whole through a fine wire sieve into a vessel and place it on the ice to get cold, working it well until it begins to stiffen. Prepare a salpicon of chestnuts and candied pineapple cut in three-sixteenths inch dice, cherries (demi-sucre) cut in four, and macaroons also cut in four; pour a little maraschino over. Incrust a timbale mold on ice, pour into it a layer of the preparation, then the fruits and continue to alternate until the mold is full. Just when ready to serve dip the mold quickly into hot water and invert the pudding on a cold dish and pour over a syrup made of chestnuts with vanilla flavoring, into which has been added a few chestnuts cut in dice. Serve some of this syrup apart.

← No. 3205 Boissy Pudding Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3207 Harrison Pudding →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold chestnut bavarois built in layers with a boozy fruit salpicon, from Charles Ranhofer's Delmonico's repertoire. Nearly everything here hinges on getting the custard and the gelatine right, since neither is cooked again once the mold is filled.

The custard is the hingeThe "English vanilla cream" is creme anglaise: eight yolks, a quart of milk, four ounces of sugar and half a split vanilla bean, cooked over low heat only until it coats a spoon, roughly 175-180F. Past that the yolks scramble and no amount of sieving will save the texture. Ranhofer does pass the finished mixture through a fine wire sieve, though at that stage the puree and gelatine are already in it.
Two ounces of gelatine is too muchTwo ounces of gelatine looks high -- Nineteenth-century gelatine was not graded to modern bloom standards, and strength likely varied between products. Two ounces of modern powdered gelatine in the roughly two quarts this base probably makes would give a bouncy, sliceable block rather than a cream; around 1 oz (four 1/4-oz envelopes) should set a chestnut bavarois of this size firmly enough to unmold. Bloom it in cold water first and stir it into the custard while the custard is still hot, as Ranhofer directs.
Chestnut puréeChestnut puree -- No. 3136 is the chestnut bavarois, not given here; the puree would have been made from peeled chestnuts cooked soft and passed through a sieve. Unsweetened canned chestnut puree works; sweetened creme de marrons does not, unless the sugar in the custard is cut back sharply.
SalpiconA salpicon is simply small even dice — here about 3/16 inch, so a scant ¼ inch. "Cherries demi-sucre" are half-candied cherries, lightly preserved rather than the hard glacé kind; drained brandied or amarena cherries are the closest thing now. The maraschino is a splash, enough to moisten, not to make the fruit swim.
Incrusting the mold"Incrust on ice" means bedding the timbale mold in crushed ice so the layers set as they go in. A freezer, working in stages and giving each layer 15-20 minutes, does the same job. Let each layer firm before adding fruit or the dice sink.
UnmoldingDip for three to five seconds only in hot water, wipe the mold, then invert onto a chilled plate. Longer and the outer quarter-inch melts to slurry.
The chestnut syrupThe recipe asks only for a chestnut syrup flavoured with vanilla, with a few diced chestnuts stirred in; the chestnut cooking liquid is the obvious source. If starting from canned puree, a light sugar syrup infused with vanilla and a spoonful of puree whisked in will read the same.
YieldA quart of milk plus puree should fill a mold of roughly 2 quarts, enough for twelve to fourteen small portions. It is very rich; small wedges seem to be the intention.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its dessert chapters run to hundreds of molded creams distinguished chiefly by their garnish and their name. Naming a pudding after a patron, a family or a public figure was common in grand-restaurant cookery of the period -- Ranhofer's neighbouring entries, Boissy and Harrison, follow the same convention -- and the Castellane name, that of a French noble house, would have carried an aristocratic ring for a Fifth Avenue clientele. The dish itself belongs to the bavarois family: custard, puree, gelatine, set in a mold packed in ice, which remained the everyday means of chilling in a professional kitchen of the period. Chestnuts were laborious to peel and marked a dessert as expensive; combining them with candied pineapple, preserved cherries, macaroons and maraschino is the kind of accumulation that made Delmonico's reputation.