No. 3467

Fiori Di Latte a la Bellini

Fiori di Latte a la Bellini

The fiori di latte is a light preparation composed of Italian meringue with hot syrup cooked to thirty-five degrees; add flavorings, also as much whipped, well-drained cream, sweetened when drained with a quarter of a pound of sugar for each quart of cream. The meringue and cream are to be well but lightly combined. This cream is used for filling molds the same shape as shown in Fig. 628.

Fiori di Latte a la Bellini.—Whip firmly one pint of cream and pour it on a wire sieve to drain for two hours. Cut in quarter-inch squares eight ounces of fruits, such as pineapple, cherries, orange and lemon peel, also a few shredded pistachios; lay these in a vessel, pour maraschino over and let macerate for one hour, then drain. Prepare an Italian meringue with four egg-whites beaten to a stiff froth, and a pint of hot thirty-five degree syrup; allow to cool, then mix it in with the whipped cream and well-drained fruits. Pack a two-quart mold in salted ice; cover the insides with a quarter-inch thick coating of uncooked strawberry ice cream (No. 3451); place the preparation into the empty space, letting the mold be quite full; press the cover on forcibly, imbed and freeze for one hour. Unmold by dipping it into warm water, the same as for all other ices, and invert it on a folded napkin, as shown in the drawing.

← No. 3466 Ice Cream Without Cooking Ices & Ice Creams No. 3468 Fiori Di Latte a la Orlandini →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A frozen mousse — Italian meringue folded into drained whipped cream and macerated candied fruit — lining a mold coated with strawberry ice cream. It is a bombe in all but name, and the technique is unchanged; only the equipment and the way sugar syrup is measured need translating.

"Thirty-five degrees" is Baumé, not Fahrenheit"Thirty-five degrees" is Baume, not Fahrenheit -- Ranhofer measured syrup with a saccharometer on the Baume scale. Roughly 35 Be corresponds to a heavy syrup of a little under 60 per cent sugar by weight, i.e. somewhat more sugar than water. Note the ambiguity: nineteenth-century books differ on whether the reading is taken hot or cold, so treat the figure as a guide and judge by the standard modern practice of cooking the syrup to about 240F for Italian meringue.
The hinge: drain the creamTwo hours on a sieve is not decoration. Whipped cream carries loose liquid that will freeze into ice shards; draining it is what gives a fiori di latte its dense, smooth body without churning. Do not skip or shorten it.
Egg whites and the syrupThe meringue is set only by the heat of the poured syrup. If the syrup is on the cool side of the range, the whites may not reach a pasteurizing temperature. Use pasteurized whites if serving anyone who should avoid raw egg.
Sugar for the creamA quarter pound of sugar per quart of cream is about 1/4 cup for the pint used here — restrained, because the meringue, the candied fruit and the maraschino all bring sweetness.
The fruitEight ounces of candied pineapple, cherries and citrus peel with a few pistachios. Cut it small, macerate an hour in maraschino, then drain hard; excess liqueur will keep the mixture from setting firm, since alcohol depresses the freezing point.
Packing in salted iceThe mold was buried in a tub of crushed ice and rock salt, which reaches well below 32F and freezes the dessert in an hour. In a home freezer, allow at least six hours, or overnight, and chill the mold before lining it.
Lining the moldA quarter-inch shell of strawberry ice cream goes in first, spread against the chilled mold with the back of a spoon. The recipe fills the center straight away rather than refreezing the shell first. Fill to the very top so no air pocket forms under the lid.
YieldA two-quart mold serves twelve to sixteen. Unmold by a brief dip in warm water — seconds, not longer — and return the dessert to the freezer to firm up again if it has softened at the edges.

A Little History

Fiori di latte — literally "flowers of milk" — is an Italian term for the finest fresh cream, and by extension for the frozen cream mousses that Italian and French pastry cooks built on it. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, gathered several of them in The Epicurean (1894), each carrying a different proper name in the manner of the period: Bellini here, Orlandini in the entry that follows, a practice generally traced to the custom of naming garnishes and desserts after composers, singers and patrons. The dish belongs to the age of ice houses and salt-packed molds, when mechanical refrigeration had not yet displaced ice in restaurant kitchens: the drained cream and the meringue help the mixture hold a sharp molded shape through a service in a warm dining room. The nested construction, an outer shell of one ice enclosing a lighter mixture, is the classic bombe, and this recipe is a plain statement of how it was done.