No. 3215

Rice with Cream and Raspberries

Riz a la Creme Framboise

Cook about a pound of rice with cream, not having it too sweet, and finish with two gills of almond milk (No. 4). When cold set it into a small thin tin vessel and incorporate slowly about two gills of syrup, flavored with lemon peel and mingled with half as much calf's foot jelly, sweetened and clarified (No. 104). Incrust a dome-shaped mold wider than its height in lightly salted pounded ice and put in a one-inch layer of thick clear jelly with raspberry juice at the bottom, and let it settle; as soon as it is hard lay another tin mold of the same shape, but narrower, on top of it, filling it up with pounded ice; pour a little of the same warm jelly between the two molds to fill up the entire vacancy and let it harden. Then remove the ice from the smaller mold and replace it by warm water so that it can be easily removed. Fill the center of the mold at once with the rice cream preparation (No. 160) thickened on ice and mixed with two spoonfuls of whipped cream and a salpicon composed of shredded pistachios, candied pineapple and half-sweetened cherries; cover the preparation with a layer of jelly and close the mold with a deep cover, on which lay pounded ice. Keep it for forty minutes longer on ice and finally remove the mold, wash it quickly in warm water and invert its contents on a cold dish. Fasten on the summit an almond paste ornament fixed on by a hatelet garnished with fruits.

← No. 3214 Rice with Apricots Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3216 Rice with Strawberries →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is one of Ranhofer's cross-referenced constructions: the text assumes you already have his almond milk (No. 4), clarified calf's foot jelly (No. 104) and rice-cream base (No. 160) standing by. What follows is really a moulding technique dressed as a dessert, and it succeeds or fails on the lining of jelly.

The hinge: building the jelly shellThe whole point is a hollow dome of clear raspberry jelly, made by setting a smaller mould inside a larger one and filling the gap. The smaller mould is weighted with crushed ice so it stays put and so the jelly sets against it; swapping the ice for warm water simply loosens it enough to lift out. Everything depends on the outer mould staying hard-chilled throughout, so work fast and keep it buried in the ice.
Ice and salt instead of a freezer"Incrust in lightly salted pounded ice" means packing the mould in a bucket of crushed ice mixed with coarse salt, which drops the temperature below freezing. A deep bowl of ice and rock salt still works and is the most faithful method.
GillsA gill is half a cup, so two gills of almond milk and two gills of syrup are one cup each. "Half as much calf's foot jelly" is therefore about half a cup of melted jelly stirred into the syrup.
Calf's foot jellyA clarified, sweetened gelatin stock simmered from split calf's feet, once the standard setting agent in a professional pastry kitchen. It is effectively unavailable now; unflavoured powdered or leaf gelatin is the working substitute, though the original gives no strength you can convert from, so the set has to be judged by testing a spoonful on a cold plate.
Almond milkRanhofer's No. 4 is pounded blanched sweet almonds worked with water or milk and strained, not the shelf-stable modern drink, which is far thinner and usually sweetened and gummed. Grinding a cup of blanched almonds with a cup of hot water and straining through cloth gives something much closer.
SalpiconA salpicon is simply a mixture of small even dice. Here it is shredded pistachios, candied pineapple and "half-sweetened" cherries, meaning cherries lightly candied rather than fully saturated in syrup; drained brandied or lightly preserved cherries are the nearest thing on a shop shelf.
HateletA hâtelet (or attelet) is an ornamental silver skewer used to pin decoration to a cold dish. It is a serving-piece, not an ingredient, and can be left off without touching the dessert.
Timing and yieldForty minutes on ice after filling is for the final set; the layered jelly work before that will take considerably longer. A pound of rice cooked with cream is a large quantity, so this is clearly a banquet piece, though the recipe gives no yield.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and this rice dome belongs to the run of cold entremets he built for large private dinners, where a dessert was expected to arrive standing up and holding its shape. Moulded rice desserts of this family descend from the French riz à l'impératrice — rice simmered in sweetened milk, folded with custard, gelatin and whipped cream, then set in a mould — and Ranhofer treats the jelly-lined shell, cast between two moulds, as routine technique rather than something needing explanation. The reliance on calf's foot jelly and on ice packed with salt places the recipe firmly before domestic refrigeration: cold was a commodity delivered by the ice wagon. The numbered cross-references throughout are the book's organising principle, a professional kitchen's system of standing preparations rather than a home cook's standalone recipe.