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Magenta Iced Pudding
Chop very finely six candied cherries, two candied pears, two candied figs, two plums and half a preserved peach. Place in a bowl with three tablespoons of maraschino, mix well and let infuse till required. Press half pint fresh-picked or preserved strawberries through a sieve into a bowl, add one ounce sugar and half teaspoon vanilla essence; mix well, add two gills whipped vanilla cream, and gently mix with a skimmer for one minute. Have twelve lady-fingers on a plate and wet the surface of them with a tablespoon Swiss kirschwasser. Set a dome-shaped quart mould in a tub with broken ice and rock salt. Place one-third of the preparation at the bottom of the mould, nicely arrange six lady-fingers over, then spread half the quantity of fruits over the lady-fingers; add another third of the preparation over fruits, then arrange the other two lady-fingers and spread the balance of fruits over, then finally spread the preparation remaining. Cover with a sheet of white paper, put the cover on, entirely bury the mould in ice and let freeze for two hours. Remove, immerse the mould in tepid water for a few seconds, thoroughly wipe all around, unmould on a dish with a folded napkin and serve.
This is a still-frozen bombe — no churning, no custard cooking — assembled in a mould and set in an ice-and-salt bath. The whole thing depends on the cream holding air, so get the mould and the ice ready before the cream is whipped.
- Gills and quantitiesTwo gills is one cup of cream; the wording ('two gills whipped vanilla cream') suggests the measure is taken after whipping, though it could be read either way. Half a pint of strawberries is a cup of berries, which sieves down to roughly a scant half cup of pur"e.
- "Whipped vanilla cream"Heavy cream whipped to soft, barely holding peaks, lightly sweetened and vanilla-scented. Whipped stiff it will not fold into the purée without breaking, and the pudding turns grainy.
- The lady-finger countThe recipe calls for twelve but places only six and then two — eight in all. Either the middle layer was meant to take four, or the extra four are spares; buy twelve and use as many as the mould will take in even layers.
- Freezing without ice and saltA domestic freezer at 0F does the same work. Cover the filled mould with plastic film against the surface rather than paper, then the lid, and give it at least four to five hours — the two hours quoted assumes the much faster heat transfer of a salted ice bath.
- Folding, not stirring"Gently mix with a skimmer for one minute" is the hinge. Fold the purée through the cream just until streaks disappear; overworked, the mixture loses volume and freezes into a dense pink brick instead of something spoonable.
- The spiritsMaraschino here means the dry cherry-pit liqueur, not the syrup from a jar of bright red cherries. Kirschwasser is unsweetened cherry brandy; both also keep the mixture from freezing rock hard, so do not reduce them much.
- UnmouldingA few seconds in tepid water is enough — count to five, wipe dry, invert. Longer and the outer layer slumps. If it resists, warm a cloth and press it to the mould rather than returning it to the water.
- YieldA quart mould serves six to eight. Cut in wedges with a knife dipped in hot water so the fruit and lady-finger layers show.
Filippini's International Cook Book belongs to the era when a formal dinner ended with an iced pudding — a bombe built in a lidded dome mould, packed in broken ice and rock salt, and turned out whole onto a folded napkin. The name echoes magenta, the aniline dye introduced around 1859 and generally said to be named for the Battle of Magenta in northern Italy; the strawberry pur"e gives the colour, and candied fruit steeped in maraschino is a common bombe garnish in period cookery. Alexander Filippini had spent years at Delmonico's in New York, and the recipe reads like restaurant work adapted for a household with an ice tub: no cooked custard, no ice-cream freezer, just cream, fruit, sponge fingers and enough liqueur to keep the mixture from setting hard.