A Mid-Nineteenth Century Lady's Nightcap

Chocolate Cream

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #2 - Culinary Vices!

The Challenge:  Culinary Vices (January 15 - January 28)  Some foods are really, really naughty. Globs of butter, lashings of sugar and syrup, decadent chocolate and wine. Bring out your naughty, indecorous side with foods associated with all the bad things, in the best ways.


Being a child of the twentieth century, I know what I consider to be decadent (chocolate!  whipped cream!  rich creaminess!) and being a student of the nineteenth century, I know that my tastes do not necessarily align with theirs.  Many of their desserts are not as sweet and naturally, few rely on refrigeration - I do qualify "few," because there are desserts, such as ice cream, which require chilling. Boiled puddings there are aplenty on both shores of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as cakes like our fruit and pound cakes.  

Mrs. Isabella Beeton

That type of dessert didn't strike me as decadent.  I needed more options and turned to a larger cookbook.  For this challenge I relied upon  the other major cookbook author of the era, Mrs. Isabella Beeton and her mammoth tome The Book of Household Management.  I wanted a dessert with heavy cream and sugar and, if possible, chocolate.  Lots of eggs and heavy cream are not seasonal right now in the dead of winter, being more abundant in the spring.  Since I was going to indulge myself and I got to eat the final product, I decided to pretend it was spring.



Source,Year, and Region:
The Book of Household Management, 1861
London
 

The Recipe

 How I Made It

The Ingredients

First thing was sourcing the ingredients.  

Chocolate was the first thing to choose.  I wanted to use a grittier chocolate since the conching machine, which makes chocolate smooth, was not invented until 1879.  I selected El Popular Chocolate, a Mexican brand, that retains that period grittiness.  It also has cinnamon added, which is not an unusual spice to find with chocolate

I used medium eggs, since multiple sources estimate that they best approximate the eggs of the time.

The biggest problem was the isinglass,  Isinglass is a food thickener akin to gelatin that is derived from the swim bladder of fish.  Although it is no longer used in food today, isinglass is still available.  I, unfortunately, did not have any because I had originally planned on making chocolate souffle.  Once I changed my mind, I did not have time to order the isinglass.  

Instead of isinglass, I opted for unflavored gelatin, which could lead to a  incorrect results    I have no idea how strongly isinglass makes food gel and how it compares to gelatin.  Since there was nothing I could do about it and I would indeed need a gelling agent, I went for a simple substitution.

Let's Get Cooking!

I grated 3 chocolate squares (each square being roughly 1 oz) on my micro plane

Grated chocolate

Knowing that gelatin needs to soften, I poured 1/4 c of heavy cream into a cup and sprinkled 2 packages of gelatin over the top, then let it sit to soften.  After about 5 minutes, I stirred the gelatin into the cream.  As it sat, it continued thickening, almost looking chunky.  I added approximately 1/4 c more heavy cream and stirred well to keep the gelatin soft.

The custard in the double boiler

After separating the eggs, I beat the 6 yolks until very frothy.  I weighed out the sugar and added it to the yolks, along with the 1 1/2 c of heavy cream and grated chocolate.  Once again I thanked my lucky stars that I did not get rid of my double boiler a few years ago.  I cooked the mixture over boiling water, stirring constantly until thick.  I admit to being nervous about judging "thick," since I have cooked jam beyond its optimal point.  A hot thickened mixture will continue to thicken as it cools.  Once I judged it was "thick enough," I removed it from the heat and stirred in the softened gelatin and cream until it was dissolved.

Chocolate Cream ready to go into the refrigerator

Now I had to make a judgement call - the next step was to whip heavy cream and fold it into the chocolate custard/gelatin.  The recipe seems to indicate that the cream should be folded in along with the thickener (gelatin).  On the other hand, whipped cream is usually added as a volumizing ingredient.  Adding the whipped cream as soon as the custard came off the stove would totally deflate it.  I decided to let the custard cool a bit, but I didn't put it in the refrigerator.  I folded in the whipped cream when I could stir the custard without steam coming off.  I oiled a one-quart casserole dish and poured in the chocolate cream, then put it in the refrigerator to set up instead of letting it sit on ice.

Time to Complete

About 10 - 15 minutes in prep time (grating the chocolate, separating and beating the egg yolks, softening the gelatin).  More time if you include letting the eggs come to room temperature.

About 10 minutes to cook the custard over the double boiler

Approximately 2 hours for the chocolate cream to set up in the refrigerator.

Total Cost

Rounding off the prices, about $1.50 for a dozen medium eggs, $4.00 for the chocolate,  $ 2.50 for each of 3 cups of heavy cream ($7.50 total).  I already had Knox unflavored gelatin and sugar in my pantry.   Totaling around $15.50

All the deliciousness!

How Successful Was It?

My husband and I decided it was delicious, which is the most important criterion.  The biggest question is how firm the cream should be.  The original recipe shows an ornate cream mold, which leads me to believe that the finished cream should be able to stand on its own (which mine does).  I would really like to try this again once I purchase isinglass (which I am doing on line).

The chocolate cream is not as sweet as we thought it was going to be, something I've noticed about many Victorian desserts.  I'll admit I was expecting something like a mousse, and this definitely is not.  It is something all on its own - and it's mighty good.

How Accurate Is It?

I changed the gelling stabilizer and have no idea how it effected the end result.  I feel fairly comfortable with the change since both are tasteless.  The unknown factor is how strongly isinglass would make the cream set up.

Because recipes of this period leave a lot to the knowledge of the cook, I cannot be sure when the whipped cream would have been added.  I chose to work with my contemporary knowledge of mousses.  Once again, I don't know how much this choice changed the dish but I judge not much.

As far as plating, I went with modern choices.  Victorians enjoyed very complex presentations and I wanted to garnish this dish.  Raspberries, a classic choice, are a summer fruit, so I chose the winter fruit of blood oranges.  While Victorians candied oranges, they didn't candy them they way I did (which are utterly delicious, by the way!)  I also added whipped cream to our servings.