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February 8
Menu: Faubonne Soup; Baked Fish; Grenadins of Veal; Roast Pigeons Endive Salad; Fruit Snowballs; Coffee Fruit Snowballs - Cream 1/4 cup Crisco with 1/2 cup sugar, add 14 cup milk, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 3 stiffly beaten egg whites. Mix and divide into small Criscoed molds, cover with Criscoed papers, and steam 35 minutes. Turn out, sprinkle with powdered sugar, garnish with candied cherries and pineapple and serve with custard sauce made with egg yolks.
A steamed sponge in individual molds, dressed up as "snowballs" with powdered sugar and candied fruit. The method is straightforward; the printed measurements need a little repair before you start.
- The milk quantity"14 cup milk" is almost certainly a typographic slip for 1/4 cup, in keeping with the 1/4 cup Crisco. A quarter cup gives a stiff batter that the beaten whites then lighten.
- Crisco means shorteningCrisco in 1912 was a newly introduced all-vegetable hydrogenated shortening, and the book exists to sell it. Any solid vegetable shortening works; butter creamed with the sugar gives better flavour and a slightly denser crumb.
- "Criscoed" molds and papersSimply greased. Grease small dariole molds, custard cups or ramekins, and cut rounds of parchment, greased on the underside, to cap each one so condensed steam does not fall into the batter. Foil over the parchment holds it in place.
- Fold, do not stirThe whites are the only real leavening beyond a teaspoon of baking powder. Fold them in in two additions with a light hand; beaten flat, the puddings steam into rubber.
- Fill two-thirdsThe original gives no fill level. Two-thirds full leaves room to rise without pushing off the papers.
- Steaming setupStand the molds on a rack in a covered pot with simmering water reaching halfway up their sides. Keep the water at a bare simmer and top it up with boiling water if it drops; 35 minutes is right for molds of about 1/2 cup capacity, longer for anything larger.
- Custard sauceThe three leftover yolks make a thin pouring custard: whisk them with about 2 tablespoons sugar, temper with a cup of scalded milk, and cook over low heat to 175-180F, until it coats a spoon. It must not boil or it will scramble.
- YieldAbout six small puddings, depending on mold size. They are best turned out and sugared just before serving, as they firm up as they cool.
The Story of Crisco (1912) was published by Procter & Gamble to teach American cooks what to do with a fat that had no precedent in their kitchens: a solid, white, shelf-stable shortening made from hydrogenated cottonseed oil rather than from an animal. Much of the book is a campaign of substitution, taking dishes that households already made with butter, lard or suet and rewriting them around the new product, which is why the word "Criscoed" appears here as a verb for greasing. The dish itself is older than the fat. Steamed puddings in small molds were common Anglo-American fare through the nineteenth century, worked into a boiler or a covered pot when the oven was busy, and "snowball" was used for various round white puddings finished with powdered sugar. The recipe is dated February 9 in the book's calendar of dinners, and the garnish is candied rather than fresh fruit.