The CWI Cookbook

Posts Tagged ‘cream’

 1 and 1/2 pints cream
1/2 pint milk
Rennet
Additional cream & sugar for serving

Warm three half pints of cream with one half pint of milk, or according to the same proportion, and put a little rennet to it; keep it covered in a warm place till it is curdled; have a proper mould with holes, either of China or any other; put the curds into it to drain, about an hour, or less; serve with a good plain cream, and pounded sugar over it.

From The Cook’s Own Book by “A Boston Housekeeper” (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee) Boston 1832

Comment: This is probably less “cream cheese” as we think of it today than a sort of quick-made cottage cheese. Rennet may look like an anachronism for a recipe from 1832, but it did not in those days come from the supermarket in a little box in tablet form. It came from the fourth stomach of a calf, which was cleaned, cut up into squares of about an inch, and preserved for use in cheesemaking or any other occasion in which milk-curdling was called for.

 1/4 lb. baking chocolate
1 pint water
8 egg yolks beaten with 6 egg whites
1 qt. cream or whole milk
3 tbs. sugar, granulated or confectioners
Sweetened whipped cream or egg whites, to top

Scrape fine a quarter of a pound of chocolate, and pour on it a pint of boiling water. Cover it, and let it stand by the fire till it has dissolved, stirring it twice. Beat eight eggs very light, omitting the whites of two. Stir them by degrees into a quart of cream or rich milk, alternately with the melted chocolate, and three table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar. Put the mixture into cups, and bake it about ten minutes. Send them to table cold, with sweetened cream, or white of egg beaten to a stiff froth, and heaped on the top of each custard. No chocolate is so good as Baker’s prepared cocoa.

From Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery by Eliza Leslie, Philadelphia, 1851.

Comment: Chocolate in this period was normally sold much like sugar was, in large solid blocks in stores from which the merchant would chop or hack off a piece if the customer did not wish to purchase the whole thing. “Rich milk” was what would today be called whole milk, from which none of the cream had been removed.

We do not know if the mention of “Baker’s prepared cocoa” was an unsolicited testimonial of personal appreciation or an early form of what is now called a “product placement ad” for which the grateful company provided the author with a (monetary) expression of gratitude. In either case the “Baker’s Chocolate” products found in stores today is made by the corporate descendant of the same company Miss Leslie was so fond of. And no, they have not paid us anything for this mention of their company.

 Fresh milk, skimmed
Cream
Powdered sugar
Nutmeg

Set a china or glass dish of skimmed milk away in a warm place, covered. When it turns, i.e. becomes a smooth, firm but not tough cake, like blanc-mange–serve in the same dish. Cut out carefully with a large spoon, and put in saucers, with cream, powdered sugar and nutmeg to taste. It is better, if set on the ice for an hour before it is brought to table. Do not let it stand until the whey separates from the curd.
Few people know how delicious this healthful and cheap dessert can be made, if eaten before it becomes tart and tough, with a liberal allowance of cream and sugar. There are not many jellies and creams superior to it.

From Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, New York, 1871

Comment: People who dealt with milk in the days when it came straight from the cow rather than in processed, homogenized, pasteurized and professionally packaged form were not as horrified by milk which had “turned” as we are today. In fact they used its natural life cycle to their advantage, preserving the valuable fats in the form of butter and hard cheeses, and the remaining fluid as what are known as farmer or pot cheeses. This dish is essentially a cottage cheese which has not been broken up into curds.

The term “bonny-clabber” is also used for a drink in which the milk, rather than be set out to curdle a bit, is mixed with beer and used as a drink instead of a dessert. Although the name sounds Scottish it is actually Irish in origin.