Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (83 page)

These amounts serve eight people. This is an excellent dessert.

In Tuscany, due to the region’s climate and also because the stomach of its inhabitants has become accustomed to this manner of cooking, the emphasis is on making dishes that turn out light and, whenever possible, rather runny. Thus, the custard there is silky smooth, made without starch or flour, and customarily served in little cups. Yet while it is true that a custard prepared in this fashion is more delicate to the
taste, it does not lend itself to English trifle, which is prepared in a mold, nor is it particularly impressive in appearance.

Here are the ingredients and amounts to be used to create confectioners’ custard, as chefs call it, to distinguish it from custard made without flour:

5 deciliters (about 2 cups) of milk

85 grams (about 3 ounces) of sugar

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of flour or preferably powdered starch

4 egg yolks

a dash of vanilla

First beat the egg yolks and the sugar together, then add the flour, and lastly the milk, a little at a time. You can begin cooking it over a high flame, stirring constantly, but when you see that the mixture starts to steam, throw a small scoop of ashes over the fire or else move the pot to a cooler corner of the hearth, if you do not want lumps to start forming. After it has firmed up, keep the pot on the fire for another eight to ten minutes, then let it cool.

Take a fluted mold, grease thoroughly with cold butter and begin filling it as follows: if you have good fruit preserves such as apricot, peach or quince, line the bottom of the mold with this, pour a custard layer on top, followed by a layer of ladyfingers dipped in white rosolio. In addition, if, for example, there are 18 flutes in the mold, dip 9 ladyfingers in alkermes and 9 in white rosolio and then fill the flutes with alternating colors. Pour more custard on top, then add another layer of ladyfingers dipped in rosolio over the custard. Repeat the procedure until the mold is full.

Make sure you do not soak the biscuits too long in the rosolio; otherwise the excess liquid will ooze out and spoil the custard. If the liqueur you are using is too sweet, lace it with rum or cognac. If the fruit preserves have hardened over time, soften over the fire with a little water (though, actually, you can make this dessert without it). Make sure the preserves are cold when you pour them into the mold.

This recipe serves seven to eight people.

In summertime you can keep this dish on ice; to remove the
contents from the mold, immerse it for an instant in hot water, so that the butter melts.

You will probably need between 120 and 130 grams (between about 4-1/4 and 4-1/2 ounces) of ladyfingers.

Take 200 grams (about 7 ounces) of ricotta cheese, soften it somewhat in milk, and sweeten it with 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of confectioners’ sugar and two pinches of ground cinnamon, mixing thoroughly.

Take a fancy mold and coat the inside with rosolio or grease with butter. Dip some ladyfingers in rosolio or alkermes. Now, using either the ladyfingers or a fruit preserve that is not too runny, cover the bottom of the mold. Then fill the mold in alternating layers, first with the ricotta, then with the ladyfingers, and then with the fruit preserves, which can be either apricot or peach. After several hours remove the dessert from the mold, and if you have prepared it carefully, it will be both delicious and dazzle your dinner guests with its handsome appearance.

The ricotta may be softened with citron rosolio instead of milk. But in that case, you will not need any cinnamon.

This is a dessert guaranteed to please.

As a family dessert, it is first rate and worth the effort.

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of black cherries, raw, whole and without the stems

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of confectioners’ sugar

50 grams (about 1 -2/3 ounces) of rye bread crumbs

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of sweet almonds

4 eggs

2 tablespoons of rosolio

a dash of vanilla or lemon zest

If you do not have rye bread, use ordinary bread.

Blanch the almonds, dry and mince finely until each piece is half the size of a grain of rice.

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until they become fluffy. Add the bread crumbs, the rosolio, the vanilla or the lemon zest, and continue mixing for a while longer. Then fold in gently the egg whites, beaten until quite stiff. Pour the mixture into a smooth mold greased with cold butter and lined with the minced almonds (the almond layer should be thicker on the bottom of the mold). Lastly, add the cherries, but to make sure that they don’t sink to the bottom because of their weight, fold any leftover almonds into the mixture.

Bake in the oven or a Dutch oven and serve hot or cold to four or five people.

This dessert may be made with either thin, toasted slices of fine bread, or with sponge cake or ladyfingers.

Remove the pits from the quantity of sour cherries you deem sufficient, and put them on the fire in very little water with a little piece of cinnamon, which you will later discard. When the cherries start to boil, add as much sugar as necessary, mixing slowly so as not to squash the cherries. When they start to make a syrup, taste to see if you have added enough sugar. Remove from the fire when you notice that the cherries begin to shrivel and are cooked through. Lightly dip the thin bread slices or the ladyfingers in rosolio and then stack them in alternating layers with the cherries on a platter or in a bowl, so that they fill it up nicely. You may also give this dessert a more regular shape by arranging it in a smooth mold and then putting the mold in ice for some time before taking the cake out, since in cherry season people are already beginning to enjoy chilled dishes. A third of the gross weight in relation to the cherries should be a sufficient amount of sugar.

This dessert, which I suspect comes to us from France, is not one of which I am terribly fond. This notwithstanding, let me describe it to you in case you do not have a better one in your repertoire and you have some egg whites on hand.

135 grams (about 4-3/4 ounces) of sugar

2 egg yolks

5 egg whites

the juice of 1 large lemon

1/2 glass of water

1 scant teaspoon of flour

Dissolve the flour in the water, whisking well, then pour into a saucepan and add the remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly and put on the fire, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon as if you were preparing a custard. When the mixture has thickened, pass it through a strainer, if necessary, then pour half of it into a bowl and cover with ladyfingers or sponge cake; then pour in the remaining mixture. Serve cold.

This recipe serves four to five people.

Take a ribbed or fluted pudding mold, grease thoroughly with cold butter and fill with ladyfingers or sponge cake soaked in rosolio and with fruit preserves. For everything else, follow recipe 675, but do not use any custard. After a few hours, which are required for the ingredients to amalgamate, remove it from the mold. But first plunge the mold into boiling water for an instant, so that the butter melts.

150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) of sweet almonds and 3 bitter almonds

150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) of powdered sugar

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of isinglass in sheets

a good “2 glass of heavy cream

1 1/2 glasses of water

2 tablespoons of orange-flower water

First prepare the isinglass, and that is easily done. Press it with your fingers to the bottom of a glass, cover it with water and allow to soak so that it has time to soften. When you are ready to use it, discard the water, and rinse it thoroughly. Blanch the almonds and crush them in a mortar, moistening them now and then with a little water. When they are reduced to a very fine paste, dilute with the one and a half glasses of water. Now pass them through a strong, loosely woven kitchen towel, making sure to force as much of the almond paste as you can through the cloth. Now prepare a mold of adequate size and grease it with butter. Next, put in a saucepan on the fire the milky almond mixture, the heavy cream, the sugar, the isinglass, and the orange-flower water. Blend everything thoroughly and allow to boil for a few minutes. Remove from the fire and, when the mixture has cooled, pour it into the mold, which should then be immersed in cold water or covered with ice. To unmold this pudding, all you need to do is wipe the sides of the mold with a kitchen towel soaked in boiling water.

It is necessary to boil the pudding mixture to make sure that the isinglass totally bonds with the other ingredients. Otherwise it might sink to the bottom of the mold.

This dish:

I francesi lo chiaman
soufflet
E lo notano come
entremet
,
lo “sgonfiotto,” se date il permesso,
Che servire potra di tramesso.

(What the French call soufflé
And use as an
entremets
,
By your leave I call “sgonfiotto”
And serve as a “tramesso.”)

1/2 liter (about 1/2 a quart) of milk

170 grams (about 6 ounces) of corn flour

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of butter

6 egg whites

3 egg yolks

a pinch of salt

Prepare a porridge, that is, pour the corn flour into the milk as it boils, or preferably, if you wish to prevent clumps from forming, first soak the corn flour in a little cold milk and then add it to the boiling milk, stirring constantly. Allow to boil for a short while. Remove from the fire, and mix in the butter, the sugar, and the salt. When sufficiently cool, blend in the egg yolks and lastly the egg whites, beaten until quite stiff. Blend gently and pour the mixture into a smooth mold or a saucepan greased with butter and dusted with wheat flour, or into a pan similarly buttered and dusted. Bake in a Dutch iven with fire above and below. When the soufflé has risen, serve immediately, if possible, so that it stays puffed up and fluffy, and does not fall. In my opinion, the best way to handle this dish is to bake it in an ovenproof bowl you serve it in, so that you do not need to transfer it.

This recipe serves six people.

50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of potato flour

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of wheat flour

90 grams (about 3 ounces) of powdered sugar

3 eggs

a dash of lemon peel

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together for about half an hour, then fold in the whites (beaten until quite stiff). Now sift both flours over the mixture and blend gently so that it stays light and fluffy. Pour into a mold with a hole in the middle that you have first greased with butter and dusted with flour mixed with confectioners’ sugar. Bake immediately in the oven or a Dutch oven. Remove from the mold when it has cooled, and pour into the hole in the middle a zabaione prepared according to recipe 684. Send to the table without further ado.