FoodNet

The spirit of cookery

1895

Page 178

Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
The }iot Charlottes are real puddings, and contain no cream, e.g., those of apples or apples and brown bread ; but the cold varieties belong to this place in the system, as they principally consist of compound creams. There is no history to the name, and they are defined by French authors as Plats d' entremets a la creme et aux fruits. Compound Cream Charlottes, commonly called Charlotte Basse, or Charlotte a la Crtme dite d laBusse, or d la Bichelieu, is an artistic outer case of sponge-cake filled with any of the compound creams above alluded to. When different jellies are employed, arranged in compartments, the Charlotte d la Brunoy is produced. When the case is constructed of fresh strawberries, agglutinated by liquid jelly, a macedoine-like charlotte ensues, called in French works Celestine Straxoherry Cream. When the case is made of agglutinated almonds, supported by two layers of com- pound creams, and a custard cream jelly in the centre, a so-called Panachde Cream, or Cream d Surprise, results. Starch Jellies or Flummeries. Flummery signifies an acid jelly made from the husks of oats, the Scotch sowers ; the word derived from the Welsh llymry, or llymrig, harsh, raw, or llym, sharp, severe, has also acquired a metaphorical meaning equivalent to insipid compliment. That the husks of oats should produce an acid by fermentation is analogous to the result of the fermentation of bran, which produces acids of the fatty acid series, particularly proprionic, useful in the preparation of morocco, kid, and wash leather. But the origin of the jelly, or any jelly, from husks is less easy to explain. We have nowhere met with any description of the manner in which this original Scotch acid jelly might be produced. STARCH JELLIES OR FLUMMERIES 277 However, flumrnery as now used in culinary language signifies a preparation the principal constituent of which is a kind of flour or starch (flour of wheat, or grits, of rice or rough-ground rice, also as grits, buckwheat, millet, sago, or starch of potatoes, rice, etc.), made soluble ‘or expanded in milk, a fruit juice sweetened with sugar, flavoured with aromatics or liqueurs, mixed with the froth of whipped albumin, and allowed to set into a jelly in a suitable mould. A flummery is sent to table with a tasty sauce, such as liquid custard with liqueur, or cold sauce of raspberries, currants, or cherries, or cream or milk sauce with flavour of almonds or vanilla, or wine sauce. In German culinary literature the dish figures as flammeri, which is further corrupted to flambri. It is not noticed at all in many English cookery-books, and the Erench also as a rule ignore it. One of the latter* has a dish which he terms Plombihres , without any explanation. This might be an attempt at an approximative reproduction of the word ‘ flummery ’ as spoken. The French dish which bears this heavy name is a cream custard, flavoured with almonds and set by heat below boiling, mixed with whipped cream and frozen in ice. Being thus destitute of starch and flour of any kind it does not come under our definition of flummery.