No. 3264

Vacherin Cake with Cream

Gateau Vacherin a la Creme

Cut three or four rounds of white paper seven inches in diameter; on the edges of these push through a socket pocket some meringue (No. 140), to form a ring an inch wide and of the same height; smooth the surfaces of the meringue on both top and sides with the blade of a knife, bestrew with fine sugar and stand each one on a board dampened with water; dry the meringue in a slack oven without letting attain color. After these rings have been removed invert them on baking sheets and replace them in the oven for ten minutes to dry the meringue that has remained soft, then stand for twenty-four hours in a warm closet. Arrange these rings on top of each other on a layer of frolle paste (No. 136) cut exactly the same dimensions, and cover each one with meringue made of cooked sugar (No. 140), to fasten them together; mask the entire inside with a thin layer of the same meringue; smooth it quickly and dry for two hours in a warm closet. After the meringue is quite cold cover it superficially with a brush dipped in reduced apricot marmalade (No. 3675), not having it too thick; dry this in the air, then decorate the upper ring with a chain of small rings a quarter of an inch thick made of lady finger paste (No. 3377), also to be covered with the marmalade. Fill the center of these small rings with quince jelly (No. 3672) or currant jelly (No. 3670). Slip the cake on a folded napkin and at the last moment cover with whipped cream flavored with vanilla (No. 50).

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is an assembly job rather than a baking one: the whole point of a vacherin is a shell of dried meringue that stays crisp until the cream goes on. Ranhofer's cross-references (No. 140, No. 136, and so on) point to component recipes elsewhere in The Epicurean; substituting standard modern versions works.

Dryness is the hingeNothing here is baked in the ordinary sense. The meringue rings must dehydrate without taking on colour, and the assembled shell has to stay dry until service. Attempt this on a humid day and the rings will weep and soften no matter how long they sit.
"Slack oven" and the "warm closet"A slack oven is simply a cool one, and for meringue that means something in the region of 200-225F, with the door propped if it will not go so low. The "warm closet" was most likely a heated cupboard near the range; the nearest modern equivalents are an oven at its lowest setting with the door ajar, a proofing setting, or a dehydrator on a low heat.
"Socket pocket"A piping bag fitted with a socket, i.e. a plain round tube. A half-inch plain tip piped in a concentric coil on the marked circle gives the inch-wide, inch-high ring the recipe wants.
The two meringuesNo. 140 covers both a plain beaten meringue for the piped rings and a meringue made with cooked sugar, which is Italian meringue: hot syrup at about 240F beaten into the whites. The Italian meringue is the mortar that glues the rings together and lines the interior, because it holds its shape and dries firm.
Frolle pastePasta frolla, a sweet short pastry, rolled and baked as a seven-inch disc to carry the tower of rings. Bake it flat and blind, until crisp and pale gold, or it will bend under the weight.
Lady finger paste and the glazeNo. 3377 is the sponge batter used for lady fingers, here piped as small quarter-inch rings, baked, then glazed. The apricot marmalade is a reduced, sieved apricot glaze brushed on thinly and air-dried; it seals the meringue against the jelly and the cream.
Paper roundsModern parchment does the work of the "white paper." The boards are dampened rather than stood in water, and Ranhofer does not say why; damp boards would have helped keep the paper and meringue from sticking or drying too fast underneath. Parchment on a heavy sheet serves the same purpose.
Timing and yieldAllow two days: rings dried and rested twenty-four hours, shell assembled and dried two hours, glaze air-dried. A seven-inch vacherin will serve a small party, depending on how it is cut. Fill with the vanilla whipped cream only as it goes to the table.

A Little History

A vacherin is the classic French pastry built from concentric rings of dried meringue stacked into a hollow case and filled at the last moment, usually with whipped cream, ice cream or fruit; the name is generally traced to a resemblance to the round, ridged Vacherin cheeses of the Jura and Swiss Alps, though the connection is traditional rather than documented. Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, included it among the grosses pieces for the entremets course of The Epicurean (1894), where a dessert was expected to arrive at the table as an architectural object and to be assembled from a library of numbered base preparations kept ready in the pastry department. The reliance on a warm closet for slow drying is a good marker of the period kitchen: coal ranges gave uneven, uncontrollable low heat, so confectioners exploited the residual warmth around the stove for anything that needed hours of gentle dehydration rather than baking.