Bavarian Cream
Whip one pint of cream to a stiff froth. Boil another pint of cream or rich milk and add two tablespoonfuls of sugar or until it is sweet, flavor; add quarter of box of granulated gelatine soaked in one-half cupful of water in a warm place, when slightly cooled, stir in the yolks of three eggs well beaten. When it has become quite cold and begins to thicken, whip whitout ceasing a few minutes until it is very smooth, then stir in the whipped cream lightly until it is well mixed. Put it into a mould or moulds and set it on ice or some cool place.
A standard Bavarian cream of the period, but the custard step is written in a way that leaves the egg yolks essentially uncooked. The notes below explain the problem and clarify the vaguer measurements.
- The custard is never cookedThe yolks go into cream that has been boiled and then allowed to cool slightly, and the mixture is never returned to the heat. Beaten yolks dropped into cooling liquid will not reach or hold a pasteurising temperature, and the mixture then spends the rest of its life cold. A modern Bavarian cream recipe cooks the yolks and dairy together over gentle heat until the custard coats a spoon before the gelatine and whipped cream go in.
- Why that matters hereThe finished cream is set cold, unmoulded and served without any further heating, so nothing downstream corrects the raw yolk. Salmonella in shell eggs is the specific risk, and an egg-rich dairy mixture held at cool-larder or ice-chest temperature is a good medium for it. Use a current custard-based Bavarian cream recipe instead.
- "Quarter of a box" of gelatineBoxes of granulated gelatine in this era commonly held roughly an ounce, often split into separate packets, so a quarter box is broadly equivalent to one modern envelope, about 2 1/4 teaspoons or 7 g; box sizes varied between makers. For this quantity of liquid that gives a soft set.
- "Flavor"The instruction is deliberately open. Vanilla is the default; period cooks also used almond, lemon rind, coffee or a spoonful of liqueur, added to the hot cream so the flavour infuses.
- Set on ice"Set it on ice or some cool place" means an ice chest or cold cellar. It also means the original was often held for hours at temperatures well above modern refrigeration, which compounds the egg problem above.
- YieldTwo pints of dairy in all, one whipped and one boiled, plus the half cup of water used for the gelatine; once the whipped cream is folded in the aerated mixture needs a mould of appreciably more than a quart. Servings will depend on the mould.
Bavarian cream — crème bavaroise in French kitchens — is a cold custard set with gelatine and lightened with whipped cream, and despite the name it is generally traced to French professional cookery of the early nineteenth century rather than to Bavaria itself; the connection to Bavarian nobility is traditional and poorly documented. Its appearance in a turn-of-the-century American household book reflects two things: the arrival of reliable commercial granulated gelatine, sold in boxes of separate packets, which replaced the tedious business of boiling down calves' feet or isinglass; and the spread of domestic ice, which made a moulded cold dessert something an ordinary household could attempt. Recipes of the period vary widely in how carefully they handle the custard, and this one is at the loose end of that range.