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Cream of Tea
(Paris.) Make a strong infusion of fine Oolong tea, take 2 gills of it and strain it. Add 5 ounces sugar, beaten with the yolks of 4 eggs, stir it on the fire until it thickens, then strain it, add 3/4 ounce gelatine melted in 1/2 gill of hot water, having first added 1 1/2 gills of cream to the egg while on the fire. Beat in some stiffly whipped cream, enough to make 1 pint in all, and pour into a mould, set on ice.
This is a tea-flavoured bavarois: an egg custard set with gelatine and lightened with whipped cream. The instructions are given in the compressed style of a professional kitchen, and the order of operations is easier to follow once the measurements are converted.
- GillsA gill is half a cup, 4 fl oz. So 2 gills of tea is 1 cup, 1 1/2 gills of cream is 3/4 cup, and the gelatine is melted in 1/2 gill, or 1/4 cup, of hot water.
- The order the original intendsRead it as: beat the 5 oz sugar with 4 yolks, stir in the strained tea, add the 3/4 cup cream, cook over gentle heat until it coats the spoon, strain, then stir in the dissolved gelatine. The cream goes in during cooking, not after, despite where the sentence falls.
- Custard temperature"Until it thickens" means about 175-180F. Above that the yolks curdle; the straining step afterwards is insurance, not a fix.
- The teaA strong infusion means roughly double the normal leaf, steeped several minutes, since a cup of tea is diluted by cream, sugar and eggs. Oolong was among the teas commonly imported in this period; a dark roasted oolong gives the most recognisable flavour. Do not over-steep to the point of bitterness, which the sugar will not mask.
- Gelatine3/4 ounce is about three envelopes of modern powdered gelatine, a firm set suited to unmoulding. Sprinkle it over the 1/4 cup of water to soften before warming it, and never let it boil.
- The "1 pint in all"The '1 pint in all' -- The liquids alone (1 cup tea, 3/4 cup cream, 1/4 cup water) already come to a pint before the sugar and yolks are counted, so the instruction is loose. Treat it as a direction to fold in whipped cream to taste and texture, roughly a cup, and expect a finished volume nearer a quart.
- FoldingCool the custard until it is syrupy and just beginning to set before folding in the whipped cream, or the cream will melt and the mixture will separate into a jellied layer and a foam.
- "Set on ice"This is refrigeration. Four hours in the fridge, or overnight. To unmould, dip the mould briefly in warm water and invert.
- YieldSix small servings from a one-quart mould, or eight in glasses if you prefer not to unmould it.
Cream of Tea is a bavarois, the cold moulded custard that French pastry work built an entire family of desserts on, flavoured here with tea rather than the usual vanilla, coffee or fruit. The Paris attribution is the point of the book: With a Saucepan Over the Sea set foreign dishes down for American households, so the reader is meant to understand this as something eaten in a French dining room rather than an ordinary domestic pudding. Oolong appears rather than a generic "tea" because the semi-oxidised Chinese leaf was prized for a fragrance that could carry through cream and sugar. The heavy hand with gelatine reflects an era when a dessert was expected to stand up on a platter and hold a moulded shape at the table, chilled on ice rather than in a refrigerator.