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Strawberry Bavarian Cream
One quart of berries, half a cupful of cold water, a quarter of a box of gelatine, one and one-eighth cupfuls of sugar, one pint of cream; thoroughly dissolve the gelatine. Mash the berries and press through a sieve that is fine enough to keep back the seeds. Add the sugar to the juice and stir until it is dissolved and mix with the gelatine. When it begins to set, fold in carefully the cream that has been whipped stiff. Turn into a mould and stand on the ice.
A straightforward cold gelatine dessert whose success rests almost entirely on timing. The proportions translate cleanly; the vocabulary does not.
- The hinge: when to foldFold in the whipped cream when the sweetened juice has thickened to the consistency of raw egg white, not before and not after. Too early and the cream separates into a foamy layer over clear jelly; too late and you get streaks and lumps that will not smooth out.
- A quarter of a box of gelatineBoxed granulated gelatine of this period was divided into four packets, so a quarter box is generally read as one packet, roughly a scant tablespoon or about 7 g. That is a modest amount for a mixture of this size and will give a soft set rather than a firm one.
- "Thoroughly dissolve the gelatine"Sprinkle it over the half cup of cold water and leave it five minutes to swell, then set the cup in hot water and stir until the liquid is completely clear. Undissolved granules show up as rubbery specks.
- CreamA pint is 2 cups of heavy or whipping cream. Whip only to firm peaks; if it goes past that it will be difficult to fold into the fruit base without deflating.
- The berries and the sugarA quart of strawberries gives roughly 2 cups of sieved purée. One and one-eighth cupfuls of sugar suits sharp, small berries, and modern supermarket fruit will often want less; taste the sweetened juice before adding the gelatine, remembering that chilling mutes sweetness.
- "Stand on the ice"Set the mould on, or packed in, ice to chill; a refrigerator serves the same purpose. Allow at least four hours, better overnight, for a mould of this size.
- UnmouldingRinse the mould with cold water before filling. To turn out, dip it to the rim in warm water for a few seconds, loosen the edge with a fingertip and invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldA generous mould, serving six to eight.
Bavarian cream, or bavarois, is a nineteenth-century restaurant construction rather than a Bavarian folk dish; the name is generally traced to French cooks of the early 1800s and the connection to Bavaria has never been firmly explained. The classic version is a custard base lightened with whipped cream and set with gelatine; fruit-purée versions like this one appear in American household books alongside the custard sort. The recipe also marks a technological moment: powdered gelatine sold in small boxed packets, rather than calf's foot jelly boiled down at home over a day, was what made cold moulded desserts routine in an ordinary kitchen. The instruction to "stand on the ice" is a reminder that this was still a dish for a household with regular ice deliveries.