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Biscuit, Mousseline
Place in a bowl six egg yolks, the grated rind of a sound lemon, juice of half of the lemon and four ounces sugar. Sharply beat with a whisk ten minutes; beat up the whites of the six eggs to a stiff froth, add to the yolks with an ounce and a half arrowroot flour and gently mix with skimmer one minute. Line bottom of an eight-inch-square lightly buttered pastry pan with sheet buttered paper, drop preparation into pan, neatly smooth surface. Sprinkle two ounces unpeeled sweet almonds and a tablespoon sugar over surface of preparation. Set in oven twenty-five minutes. Remove, evenly pour half gill good Jamaica rum over surface of cake and let cool off. Turn cake on the table, lift up paper, sprinkle a little powdered sugar over. Cut biscuit in twelve equal pieces, dress on a dish with a folded napkin and serve.
A whisked sponge leavened entirely by eggs, with arrowroot standing in for flour. The batter has no chemical leavening and no fat, so everything depends on how much air you beat in and how little you knock out afterward.
- The hinge: fold, don't stirThe yolk mixture must be beaten to a pale, thick ribbon and the whites to a stiff but not dry froth. Once the whites and arrowroot go in, one minute of gentle folding is all the structure will tolerate; a stand mixer on medium-high gets the yolks there in about 5 minutes rather than the 10 specified for hand whisking.
- Oven temperatureThe original names none. A moderate oven, 350F, suits 25 minutes for a shallow sponge of this size. It is done when the top springs back and a skewer comes out clean.
- Weights and measuresFour ounces sugar is a generous 1/2 cup by volume (about 115 g); an ounce and a half of arrowroot is roughly 5 tablespoons, but weigh it if you can, since arrowroot is very light and cup measures vary wildly. Two ounces of almonds is a scant 1/2 cup.
- Half a gill of rumA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 1/4 cup, about 60 ml. Pour it over while the cake is still hot so it soaks in rather than sitting on the surface.
- Arrowroot flourStill sold under that name, in the baking or gluten-free aisle. It gives a finer, slightly more fragile crumb than wheat flour and no gluten, which is why the folding matters so much.
- Unpeeled sweet almonds"Sweet" simply distinguishes them from bitter almonds; ordinary almonds are what is meant. Unpeeled means skin-on. Chop or sliver them so they toast rather than roll off the surface.
- Pan and paperAn 8-inch square pan lined with buttered parchment is the modern equivalent of the buttered sheet paper. The cake is turned out and the paper peeled off, so do not skip the lining.
- Yield and servingTwelve squares, dusted with powdered sugar. The folded napkin on the serving dish is period presentation, not function; the cake keeps a day or two covered, and the rum improves overnight.
In French pastry a biscuit is not a cookie but a batter of yolks and sugar beaten to a ribbon, lightened with separately whipped whites and only lightly bound with starch or flour: the family that gives us biscuit de Savoie, biscuit joconde and the ladyfinger. Mousseline is the standard kitchen adjective for something as light as muslin, applied to sauces, potatoes and cakes alike. Substituting arrowroot for wheat flour is often said to have been a nineteenth-century refinement for producing an especially delicate crumb, arrowroot having arrived in European kitchens from the West Indies and being prized in both invalid cookery and fine pastry. The Jamaica rum poured over the hot cake, and specified by origin, points to the same colonial supply lines. Alexander Filippini, long of Delmonico's in New York, assembled The International Cook Book (1906) as a survey of national kitchens for American cooks, and the clipped, comma-spliced style here is his throughout: a professional's shorthand, written as if dictated across a kitchen.