No. 3636

The Dosser a la Denivelle

La Hotte a la Denivelle

Roll out some nougat (No. 3621) to a quarter of an inch in thickness, and from it cut with either a tin or oiled cardboard pattern a piece fifteen inches long by six on one end and four on the other in width, rounding the six-inch end which is for the upper part of the dosser; also cut another piece of a semicircular shape four inches in diameter by two and a half inches in radius. Prepare eleven wires, two eight inches long, two of seven and three-quarters, two of seven and a half, two of seven and a quarter, two of seven and one of six and three-quarters inches; coat them all with colored sugar. Fasten the semi-circular bottom on the large piece at its narrowest end, near the edge; on this bottom arrange the wires, beginning with the eight-inch ones on each side beside the back of the dosser, and continuing with the others according to their various lengths, at the same time spreading them open toward the top. Coat with green sugar two more wires each nine inches long, and leave to cool. Cut out a round bottom twelve inches in diameter, then fasten the dosser on the center of it, pressing it against the two long wires to be used for a support; decorate the whole profusely with leaves and flowers made of satinated pulled sugar (No. 3618), and fill the dosser with mushrooms or strawberries made of almond paste (No. 125), also some angelica coated with sugar cooked to "crack" (No. 171). The dosser may be filled with small ices imitating flowers.

← No. 3635 Cornucopia, Horn of Plenty Large Show Pieces No. 3637 Vases of Pulled and Drawn Sugar →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a construction, not a dish: a sugar-work basket built on a marble slab and set out on a buffet. Almost everything in it is edible, but the armature is not, and the whole thing lives or dies by humidity.

Work dry, and work warmNougat and pulled sugar are hygroscopic. In damp air the rolled nougat softens and the pulled-sugar flowers go dull and sticky, so a dry room, a warm marble or a heat lamp, and airtight storage with a desiccant are what make the piece hold. This matters more than any measurement in the recipe.
What "nougat" means hereNot the soft white confection but nougat sec: blanched sliced almonds folded into cooked sugar or caramel and rolled out thin between oiled sheets while still hot. It is workable for a minute or two at most and must be cut against the pattern immediately; once set it shatters rather than bends.
Sugar cooked to "crack"The cassé or crack stage of the old degree tables corresponds to roughly 285-295F (140-146C) on a thermometer, just short of caramel. The angelica is dipped in it to glaze.
Satinated pulled sugarSugar boiled to hard crack, cooled on oiled marble, then folded and pulled repeatedly until it takes on an opaque satin sheen. Leaves and flowers are formed hot under a lamp; a pair of thin cotton gloves is standard, since the mass is well above scalding temperature while it is still pliable.
The wires are not foodThe eleven ribs and the two nine-inch supports are metal, sugar-coated only for appearance. Use stainless steel or food-grade aluminium rather than florist wire, which is often iron with a lacquer or a plastic coating not meant for contact with hot sugar, and remove every wire before anything from the basket is eaten.
One dimension is contradictoryThe bottom piece is described as "four inches in diameter by two and a half inches in radius," which cannot both be true. Read it as a half-round about four inches across the straight edge, cut to sit against the narrow end of the body; adjust to your own pattern rather than trying to reconcile the numbers.
Almond paste and the fillingNo. 125 is the book's almond paste, used here to model the mushrooms or strawberries. If you take the alternative and fill the basket with small moulded ices, assemble at the last moment: melting ice water will dissolve the nougat floor.
Yield and useThe finished piece stands roughly fifteen inches on a twelve-inch base and is a centrepiece for a large buffet, not a dessert course. The marzipan fruit, glazed angelica and sugar flowers are the edible parts; the nougat shell is decorative.

A Little History

La hotte is the tall tapering pannier a French vineyard worker straps to his back at harvest, wide at the shoulder and narrow at the base, which is exactly the shape the wires and the two cut pieces describe; the English translation "dosser" is the old word for the same thing, a basket borne on the back (from dos). Charles Ranhofer put it in the Large Show Pieces chapter of The Epicurean (1894), alongside sugar temples, cornucopias and vases of pulled sugar, in the tradition of Careme's pieces montees. Who Denivelle was is not established here, and the attribution should be read as a name attached to the pattern rather than documented authorship. Within a generation the fashion for inedible architecture at table had largely gone, and instructions this precise about wire lengths survive mostly in books like this one.