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Ambrosia Pudding
Ambrosia pudding is a delicious dessert. It requires six juicy rich Valencia oranges; or, if they are juicy, seedless oranges will do; one pint of rich cream, the yolks of two eggs, two cupfuls of sugar, a lemon, a half package of English gelatine, a half cup of cold water, a half cup of pistachio nuts chopped fine, and a cupful of fresh grated cocoanut, are the other ingredients. Almonds may be used in place of pistachios if the flavor of the latter is not liked, and in this case, to give the jelly a pale green tint, use a little spinach coloring liquid. For a large pudding use a two-quart melon mold. Prepare a pale orange jelly.
Squeeze out the juice of three of the oranges; these should be at least a cupful and a half of this, and the juice of the lemon, a cupful of sugar and a little of the lemon rind grated. Soak a third of a package of gelatine in a quarter of a cupful of cold water; add a quarter of a cupful of boiling to it and strain into the sweetened orange and lemon juice. Let it become cold and meantime have the melon mold set in a pan of cracked ice. Line the sections of the mold alternately with the chopped pistachio or almonds and half the grated cocoanut and pour cold jelly over them to hold them in place. In order to set the jelly evenly on all sides, the mold must be turned from side to side, as the fluid hardens. This hardening will take place in a few minutes if the mold is set in cracked ice. When this is accomplished, prepare an orange Bavarian cream with cocoanut. Beat to a stiff froth a cupful and half of rich cream, one-half cupful of cream; put this over to boil. Beat the yolks of the eggs well and stir in the hot milk; after removing from the fire, and then stir the mixture three moments, setting dish holding it in a pan of boiling water, and finally adding a quarter of a package of gelatine which has been soaking in a quarter of a cup of cold water. Before adding the gelatine, set the cup that it is in, in a pan of boiling water and stir the gelatine until it is perfectly dissolved. Strain it into the cream and yolks of eggs; add now a cupful of sugar and the grated rind of one of the oranges. Let the mixture cool and add the juice of three oranges. Stir the whole in a dish of cracked ice. When it is as thick as a custard, add the whipped cream and finally half a cupful of cocoanut. When it is too thick to stir, turn it into the lined mold. Serve it turned out on a low platter, surrounded by the whipped cream. The alternate pale green and white and gold sections of the dessert look pretty in its wreath of snow, and is delicious in flavor.
An elaborate two-part moulded dessert: a clear orange jelly lining studded with nuts and coconut, filled with an orange Bavarian cream. The text is garbled in places, so read the whole thing before starting.
- The garbled cream line"Beat to a stiff froth a cupful and half of rich cream, one-half cupful of cream; put this over to boil" is a printer's error. The sense is: whip 1½ cups of the cream and reserve it, and scald the remaining ½ cup (milk or cream) for the custard. The whipped cream is folded in at the end, and more is wanted for the platter, so buy a full quart.
- Gelatine quantitiesA modern envelope of powdered gelatine is ¼ oz, about 2¼ teaspoons, and sets about 2 cups of liquid. Period "packages" were larger, and English gelatine of the day was often sold in sheets or strips, which may be why the recipe speaks in thirds and quarters. Judge by liquid volume instead: roughly one envelope for the orange jelly, and one for the Bavarian cream, which is stabilised by cream as well.
- Cook the custard properlyThe yolks are tempered with hot milk and then stirred over a pan of boiling water. The text's "three moments" is unclear; cook until it coats the spoon, 170-175F. This is the only heat the eggs get, so do not shortcut it. Strain before chilling.
- SugarTwo cupfuls total, split one cup to the jelly and one to the cream. With sweet Valencias this is a great deal by current taste; three-quarters of a cup in each part suits a modern palate better.
- Lining the mouldThis is the hinge. The jelly must be cold and syrupy but not set, the mould must be genuinely cold, and it has to be rolled and turned continuously so each panel sets to an even thickness. A bowl of ice water works as well as cracked ice; a metal melon or charlotte mould chills fastest.
- Spinach colouringThe pale green tint came from spinach juice, made by pounding raw leaves and straining. Any modern green colouring does the same job, and it is only wanted if almonds replace the pistachios.
- Coconut"Fresh grated" means from the nut. Unsweetened desiccated or frozen grated coconut is the nearest substitute; sweetened flake will push an already sweet dessert over the edge.
- Unmoulding and yieldA two-quart mould serves ten to twelve. Dip it briefly in warm water, loosen the top edge, and invert onto a chilled platter. Best made well ahead, as it wants several hours to set firm.
Ambrosia takes its name from the food of the Greek gods, and in American cookery it settled onto one particular combination: sliced oranges layered with sugar and grated coconut, a dish that appears in Southern cookbooks from the 1860s onward and became fixed as a Christmas and holiday dessert. Both halves depended on transport rather than on any local harvest, since Florida and Valencia oranges and whole coconuts arrived by rail and steamer, which is why the dish reads as a winter luxury. What this version does is take that simple layered ambrosia and put it through the apparatus of turn-of-the-century company cookery: a Bavarian cream (from the French bavarois, a custard set with gelatine and lightened with whipped cream) inside a lined and decorated jelly mould. Commercial granulated gelatine had by then made such moulds possible without the laborious business of boiling calves' feet that earlier cooks faced, and cookbooks of the period are full of them; a turned-out mould is often taken as a signal that real effort had been spent.