No. 3597

Swan with Reeds and Rushes

Le Cygne aux Roseaux

Have an oval bottom made of office paste (No. 143) or wood, half an inch thick, fifteen inches long and eleven wide; glaze it with royal icing (No. 101) of a soft green color and place around an inch and a half from the border a band of pistachio nougat (No. 3622) two and a half inches high, on top of this a platform of sugar cooked white to "crack" (No. 171), and the same size as the band; garnish around the stand with reeds, rushes, etc., made of pulled sugar. Mold a swan with out-stretched wings and neck in lemon virgin cream (No. 3459), the under part of the wings in coffee (No. 3460) and the body in vanilla (No. 3458); pack it in ice and freeze for two hours. Unmold and lay this swan in the center of the platform, imitating the eyes with small dry currants. This dish can be garnished all around with flowers made of ice cream placed in small paper cases.

← No. 3596 Rabbit in Surprise Molded Ices & Large Pieces No. 3598 The Helmet →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is an assembly plan for a centerpiece, not a formula: Ranhofer assumes you already have his paste, nougat, pulled sugar and ice cream recipes in hand. What follows translates the structural instructions.

Office paste vs. woodOffice paste -- pâte d'office is a stiff sweet decorating paste used for socles; it is technically edible but not meant to be eaten. The recipe offers wood as an equal alternative. A half-inch plywood or acrylic oval, 15 by 11 inches, does the same job and can be reused.
Royal icing as paintThe green glaze is royal icing spread over the base to read as water; a thinned, flooding consistency is the practical way to do it. Let it dry hard before anything is set on it.
Sugar "cooked white to crack"Hard crack, 300-310F (149-154C). "White" means cooked without coloring and without letting it take on amber. The platform is a poured slab of this sugar, set on the nougat band to make a transparent plateau.
Pulled sugar reedsReeds and rushes are pulled sugar, worked on an oiled slab or silicone mat under a lamp. They absorb humidity and go limp within hours in a damp room; make them last, keep them in a sealed box with silica gel, and place them at the final moment.
"Virgin cream"Ranhofer's virgin creams (Nos. 3458-3460) are sweetened, flavored cream preparations rather than egg custards. For molding, use a dense ice cream; anything very airy will slump when unmolded.
Freezing and unmolding"Pack it in ice" means burying the sealed mold in a tub of crushed ice and rock salt, the standard freezing method of the period. A modern freezer at 0F does it better, and two hours may be short for a piece this size. Unmold by dipping the mold in warm water for a few seconds and inverting onto a chilled tray.
The hingeEverything cold must go on last. Build and dry the base, band and sugar platform completely, then set the frozen swan in place immediately before service. Condensation on a cold surface will dissolve pulled sugar and royal icing within minutes.
Currant eyes"Small dry currants" are Zante currants, the tiny dried grape, not fresh redcurrants. Press them in while the ice cream surface is still workable.
ServingNo yield is given because the piece is scaled to a banquet table.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is the record of what a first-class American restaurant of the Gilded Age could put on a table. The pièce montée — a mounted, architectural centerpiece of sugar, nougat and ice — descends from the French repertoire codified by Carême in the early nineteenth century, where the confectioner was expected to work as a builder in miniature. The swan appears among these subjects, and it suits the frozen medium, since outstretched wings and a curved neck are the kind of form a mold can carry. The three flavors here are lemon, coffee and vanilla. Neighboring entries in this section — a rabbit in surprise, a helmet — show the same logic: the ice was as much scenery as dessert, carried in whole, admired, and only then cut.