No. 3470

Fiori Di Latte with Violets, Burnt Almonds and Pistachios

Fiori di Latte a la Fleur de Violette, aux Pralines et aux Pistaches

Cook two ounces of violet leaves in two ounces of sugar, and when this has reached "crack" (No. 171), pour it on a marble to cool, then pound and run it through a sieve. Whip a pint of cream till very firm, and drain it on a sieve. Beat five egg-whites to a stiff froth, mix into them three gills of hot thirty-five degree syrup, and cool this meringue by standing the basin on ice; mix together lightly the whipped cream, Italian meringue and violet sugar. Pack a fiori di latte mold (Fig. 628) in salted ice and line it with a coating of virgin maraschino ice cream, finishing as the Bellini (No. 3467).

Burnt Almonds and Pistachios.—The same preparation as the above; after mixing the whipped cream with the Italian meringue add two ounces of crushed burnt almonds and two ounces of shredded pistachios, also two tablespoonfuls of orange flower water. Mix well together and with this fill a mold coated with virgin orange ice cream (No. 3459). Fiori di latte can also be flavored with either chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, lemon, orange or Seville orange. Peel the three latter very finely, cut the skins up very thin or else chop them, or fruits with well-flavored juices may be substituted, etc.

← No. 3469 Fiori Di Latte with Vanilla or Other Flavori Ices & Ice Creams No. 3471 Mousse a la Semiramis →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

This is a bombe: a frozen mousse of whipped cream and Italian meringue, set inside a shell of churned ice cream. Nothing is churned in the mousse itself, so the meringue and the whipped cream are the only things standing between you and a block of ice — under-whip either and the center will freeze hard.

Violet "leaves"Ranhofer means the petals of sweet violet, Viola odorata, not foliage and not the modern African violet (Saintpaulia), which is a different plant entirely and not used in food. Two ounces of fresh petals is a large bowlful; candied violets, crushed, are the practical substitute.
"Crack"The crack stage of sugar boiling, which he indexes at No. 171, corresponds roughly to 290-310F on a modern thermometer, i.e. hard crack. Cooked with the petals and poured onto marble, it sets to a brittle sheet that pounds into a fragrant powder. Work fast: it grabs moisture from the air and turns tacky.
Gills and "thirty-five degree syrup"A gill is half a cup, so three gills is 1 1/2 cups. Thirty-five degrees is a hydrometer (Baume) reading, not a temperature -- a heavy syrup, on the order of two parts sugar to one part water by weight. The recipe asks for it hot, poured into the beaten whites.
Italian meringueAdd the hot syrup in a thin thread with the whites already at stiff froth, then whip over ice until the bowl is cold to the hand. Warm meringue folded into whipped cream deflates both and the mousse will be dense.
Draining the creamWhipping a pint "till very firm" and draining it on a sieve removes free liquid that would otherwise freeze into grit. Do not skip it; there is no churn here to break up ice crystals.
"Virgin" ice creamVirgin here appears to mean plain and uncoloured: a white maraschino or orange ice cream rather than a tinted one. Soften it just enough to spread, line the chilled mold in an even coat, and refreeze the shell solid before filling.
Salted ice, or the freezerA mold packed in ice and coarse salt holds well below 32F; a home freezer at 0F does the same job with less mess. Either way the filled mold wants four hours at minimum, and overnight is better.
Orange flower waterTwo tablespoons is a good deal by current tastes. Start with two teaspoons in the almond-pistachio version and taste the mixture before it goes into the mold.
YieldNo yield is stated. A pint of cream, five whites and the lining ice cream make a generous quantity, enough for eight to ten. Unmold by dipping the mold briefly in cool water and inverting onto a chilled plate.

A Little History

Fiori di latte — "flowers of milk" — is Charles Ranhofer's name for the unchurned frozen cream mousses that fill the bombe molds in the ice chapter of The Epicurean (1894), the record of his decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York. The technique is French rather than Italian despite the name: cream and Italian meringue frozen still, in contrast to the churned ices that surround it. Violet was among the most fashionable flavors of the period, arriving in the kitchen by way of the perfumer and the confectioner; candied violets are traditionally associated with Toulouse and with Parma, and by the 1890s crystallized petals were a standard shop item in both Europe and New York. The alternative version, with burnt almonds and pistachios, points to the older confectioner's praline — caramelized nuts crushed to a grit — while the closing list of substitutions is characteristic of Ranhofer's method throughout the book: establish one preparation thoroughly, then name a dozen dishes that come out of it.