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Charlotte Russe (II)
Mrs. J. P. Holt.
Take one quart of thin cream, sweeten and flavour; whip the cream until all in froth; then take half box of gelatine, put in as little cold water as possible to soak, and set on the stove to melt; have the gelatine cool before putting into the cream; have a dish already lined with cake or lady-fingers, pour the cream into it and set on ice until ready for use.
A gelatine-set Charlotte Russe with no custard and no eggs, which makes it one of the simplest versions in the 19th-century repertoire. Two things decide whether it works: the fat content of the cream and the temperature of the gelatine when it meets it.
- "Thin cream" is misleading"Thin cream" is ambiguous -- cream was sold at a range of thicknesses and the term may well have meant a less rich cream rather than simply one unthickened by scalding or standing. For a froth that holds, use heavy or whipping cream at about 36% fat; modern light cream at 18-20% will not whip.
- Half a box of gelatineGenuinely ambiguous. Boxes of the era ran roughly 1 to 2 ounces, so "half" could mean anywhere from a scant half ounce to a full ounce, and old sheet gelatine was weaker and less consistent than today's standardised powder. Err low: about half an ounce, two standard envelopes, sets a quart of whipped cream firmly enough to unmould.
- Soak, then melt gently"As little cold water as possible" means just enough to swell the granules, about a quarter cup. Set the bowl over hot water rather than directly on the burner; gelatine that boils loses strength and takes on a glue-like smell.
- The hinge: matching temperaturesWarm gelatine collapses whipped cream, cold gelatine seizes into rubbery threads through it. Cool the melted gelatine until it is barely lukewarm and still fluid, then pour it in a thin stream while folding, working quickly and without stopping.
- FlavouringVanilla, often with a spoonful of sherry, brandy or maraschino, is a common choice in recipes of this type. Sweeten before whipping, roughly a third of a cup of sugar to the quart, and taste then, since chilling mutes sweetness.
- Lining the dishA charlotte mould or plain straight-sided bowl. Stand the lady-fingers upright and tight against each other, rounded sides out, with a few trimmed to tile the bottom; gaps let the cream escape and ruin the turn-out.
- "Set on ice"Chilled on ice or in the icebox. Refrigerate at least four hours, or overnight. To unmould, dip the outside briefly in warm water and invert onto a cold plate.
- YieldA quart of cream whips to roughly two quarts and fills a large charlotte mould: eight to ten servings.
The name credits Marie-Antoine Carême, who is generally said to have devised the *charlotte russe* in the early 19th century as a variant of the English apple charlotte, renaming it in honour of the Russian court he served. Carême's original was a mould lined with biscuits and filled with bavarian cream, a custard set with isinglass; by the time this book was compiled, cheap commercial gelatine had reached North American grocers and cooks like Mrs. Holt could skip the custard entirely, folding gelatine straight into sweetened whipped cream. The result is faster, lighter and far less likely to curdle, and versions of it filled charity cookbooks and church supper tables for the rest of the century.