In the early 1900's, when unlimited sums were spent on expansive living in England and on the Continent, the chefs who served in the kitchens of great estates were French, or at least French-trained. Many English boys came to France to study their trade under the supervision of famous French chefs, so that they might go home to well-paid jobs across the Channel. Great English families maintained permanent pied-à-terre in Paris hotels and brought their kitchen maids with them to learn the ways of French cooking and its culinary language in the hotel kitchen. Armed with this experience, the young women were of invalue assistance to the busy chefs at home. It was a lucky chef whose household included a French-trained kitchen maid who knew just what was wanted, had everything in hand, and could keep a dozen details in order when the strain of an important dinner put the cook on his mettle.
We always had one or two filles de cuisine, as we called these little English girls, in the kitchen of the Bristol in Paris. That circumstance, I must admit, imposed no hardship on the young chefs. They were such charming girls, so pretty, with theironde hair,blue eyes, and fair English complexions, and just enough different from our French girls to be particularly intriguing. The rivalry for their favor was usually keen, and if the kitchen staff happened to include one of their own countrymen. who naturally had a language advantage, we Frenchmen” had to find tricks of our own to help the flirtations.
I recall one such English rival, Robert Tudge, who was put in my charge for his training. Although he spoke no French and I no English, we got along very well, except that we were both eying, with seventeen-year-old interest, the pretty Victoria who was bustling around the kitchen. She could talk with Robert, and she couldn't even understand me, so 1 wasn't making much progress in the conversational way. But one afternoon I had my chance. I had been teaching Robert how to make hot desserts, the wonderful entremets chauds, so popular during the raw winters of the Continent, and the dish for this evening was an apple charlotte. Somehow I forgot to explain carefully to Robert how to overlap the slices of bread in the mold and how to cook the water out of the apples so that the puddling would stand up and hold its shape when it was unmolded. I did remember, however, to prepare another charlotte, one that would stand up, as a precaution. When the waiter came, I nodded to Robert; he turned out his charlotte and despairingly watched it sink down into an untidy, unappetizing mass. At that point 1 turned out my charlotte de pommes, the most shapely of puddings, and deftly dressed it with glistening apricot sauce. Victoria was standing by, and her broad and admiring wink told me that she did not have to know the French language to understand my strategy! Eh bien, it was a silly joke, not worthy of the dignity of the grot bonnet, but it was love, and we were young.
Twenty-five years later Robert Tudge, just off the boat from France, walked into my office at the Ritz-Carlton. He had forgotten almost entirely how to speak English, oddly enough, and as we laughed and sighed over old times, he said, “Faites-vous des charlottes de pommes à présent, Louis?”
I was able to tell my old friend that I was indeed still making apple charlottes, along with inumerable other hot desserts. My employer, Mr. Keller, who was then president of the hotel, was a connoisseur of international reputation. and he preferred hot desserts. If they could be hot and flambéed, so much the better. To him the perfect end for a distinguished meal was the croûte aux fruits flambées(see November, 1951). When together we planned the details of the dinners which writers of the time described as fabulous, he would always leave the dessert to me. “Think up something new to surprise me, Louis. Send it in flaming.”
Mr. Keller was not the only gourmet who understood and appreciated hot desserts. I have pored over many, many figures that show how popular hot desserts were at the Ritz, figures which make it plain that the current emphasis on frozen desserts and the tray of French pastries is the line of least resistance, not always the answer to pic demand. My experience has been that men. particularly, are fond of hot desserts, and surely the fame of many restaurants in this country rests on their skill with les entremets flambés. Further, connoisseurs often insist that many of the desserts usually eaten cold should be served freshly cooked and still warm, or at least reheated. Heating improves taste and texture of such dishes as fruit pies, rite puddings, and baked apples.
The hot dessert is not purely a French tradition, although the soufflés, beignets, crêpes, and fruit charlottes of France are superb examples of the genre. My sojourn in England taught me how much steamed and baked puddings mean to the British, and how bare a British Christmas te would be without the (laming plum pudding to crown it. As for America, where tradition is fleeting, brown betty and fruit cobbler are almost all that is left of a long list of cold-weather favorites that were named in the old cookbooks. In many families, as in most restaurants, pastry, ice-cream and a few simple cold puddings are the invarie dessert, and the special sweet richness of a hot dessert, the flavor enhanced by the piquancy of a burning liqueur, is, sadly, unfamiliar.
It was not so at the old Ritz. Even when we were faced with the prem of keeping a fragile soufflé from drooping on its long journey from the oven to the guest in the dining room, a task infinitely riskier than yours in carrying the soufflé from the kitchen to the te in the next room, we served soufflés because our European guests, and our American guests who had traveled abroad, demanded them, along with the other entremets chauds. Nothing was too much trouble then.
Once when Mr. Keller asked me to make a surprise dessert for some guests from the diplomatic set in Washington, I put together a dish which became an all-time favorite. I knew the guests and their tastes; crème frite was one of their frequent choices, and cherries Jubilee another. So I considered combining the two. Then I remembered that two of the guests were from Spain, and very interested in the canned white grapes which were then beginning to be shipped here from their homeland. So I substituted grapes for the cherries and created a new dish with a new name:
Crème Frite aux Raisins Flambée
To make the sauce, drain the juice from 2 cans of white grapes. Put the grapes in the top of a doe boiler or a chafing dish over hot water. Cook the juice in a saucepan until it is reduced to half its original quantity. Add an equal amount of apricot sauce (page 60). If the sauce is thin, the mixture may be thickened just a little with arrowroot mixed with a very little cold water. When this is added, boil the sauce for a minute or two longer. Add 2 ounces of prunelle liqueur, pour the sauce over the grapes in the chafing dish, and keep hot until ready to serve, Just before serving, heat 4 ounces of kirsch and pour it over the grapes. Ignite the sauce and serve it flaming with:
Crème Frite (Fried Cream)
Mix together 4 tablespoons sugar, 5 tablespoons flour, and a pinch of salt. Add 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, mixing thoroughly. Then add a second egg and egg yolk, mixing thoroughly, and finally a third egg and a yolk. The mixture should be worked with a spoon until well combined and very smooth.
Meanwhile, scald 2 cups milk with a piece of vanilla bean (see November, 1951). Remove the bean and pour the hot milk slowly into the egg mixture, stirring briskly with a wire whip. Add 1 tablespoon butter and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vigorously all the time. Pour the cream into a buttered shallow pan in a layer ¾ inch thick. Chill thoroughly.
Turn the pan upside down on a lightly floured board and turn out the thickened cream. Cut it in 1 ½-inch squares or other decorative shapes. Dust each piece with Hour and dip it in beaten egg and then in fine fresh bread crumbs. Fry the squares in deep hot far or oil (370° F.) until golden-brown. Drain thoroughly on absorbent paper and serve hot, with the flaming grape sauce poured over them.
I taught many young Britons the tricks of my chef's trade (not the trick 1 taught my friend Robert Tudge, however! ) but I also learned much from them during the years I was at the London Ritz. Not the least of my debt to England is the plum pudding. In my early years in New York we made a thousand pounds of plum pudding every season. They were served in the dining room during the holidays, of course, and many were purchased by guests to send as Christmas gifts. Then, too, every chef received a Christmas gift of a turkey, a bottle of liquor, and a plum pudding—and in those days there were about one hundred chefs. Plum puddings like this oneazed on Christmas dinner tes in this country for many years, and for many more years in England It may be made many weeks before it is needed and stored in a cool, dry place. To reheat it, put the bowl in a kettle, add water to the halfway mark, and bring the water to a boil. Cook for an hour or so to heat it thoroughly.
Christmas Plum Pudding
Mix together 2 cups finely chopped beef kidney suet, 5 ounces each of Malaga raisins, sultana raisins, and currants, 3 ounces of finely chopped mixed lemon peel and citron, 2 ounces of chopped, blanched almonds, ¾ cup each of fine dry bread crumbs and flour, 1 teaspoon mixed ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace with a very little clove, 3 eggs, beaten, 1 cup brown sugar, and ½ teaspoon salt. Add the grated rind and juice of 1 lemon. Mix all together well and moisten with 6 ounces each of ale and stout and 3 ounces each of rum and brandy.
Fill a well-buttered bowl three fourths full and tie a heavy muslin cloth securely over the top. Place the bowl on a rack in a large kettle with boiling water about halfway to the top of the bowl. The water should not be high enough to boil over and into the bowl. Or pur the bowl in a steamer. Cook for 3 hours. Cool the pudding before storing it.
When ready to serve, reheat the plum pudding in the kettle of water or steamer for about 1 hour. Remove the muslin from the top, invert the pudding on a serving dish, and sprinkle it with sugar. Then pour 2 or 3 ounces of warm rum or brandy over it and ignite. Serve flaming, with sabayon, vanilla, or hard sauce (see below). This pudding will serve twelve, but it may also be cooked in smaller bowls.
The favorite sauces for the entremets chauds are the versatile fruit sauces, vanilla sauce, hard sauce, and sauce sabayon (see below).
Fruit Sauce
Add a little lemon juice to 2 cups of any fruit juice and stir in sugar to taste. Bring the juice to a boil, stir in 2 tea-spoons cornstarch mixed with a little cold fruit juice, and cook, stirring, until the sauce is clear and thickened.
Apricot Sauce
Wash ½ pound of dried apricots, cover them with 2 cups water, and soak for several hours. Bring to a boil and simmer until the apricots are soft. Rub the fruit and water together through a sieve and add ½ cup sugar to the puree. Cook until the sugar is dissolved. stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Thin to the desired consistency with hot water.
Vanilla Sauce
Scald 1 cup each milk and cream with a 1-inch piece of vanilla bean or add ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. Beat 4 egg yolks with ½ cup sugar and combine with the hot milk and cream, stirring with a whisk. Cook in the top of a doe boiler, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon. Strain through a fine sieve and let it cool. For a thicker saute, add 1 teaspoon flour to the egg-yolk mixture. For a lighter, richer sauce, add ½ tup cream, whipped.
Hard Sauce
Cream ½ cup sweet butter until light. Gradually beat in 1 ½ cups confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons brandy, rum, or liqueur. Chill before serving.
Sauce Sabayon
Whip 2/5 cup sugar with 4 egg yolks until very light in color and stir in 1 cup white wine. Place this in the top of a doe boiler over cold water and cook, stirring constantly, just until the water in the bottom reaches the boiling point. The mixture should be very creamy. Add a little rum or kirsch to taste. Serve hot. Port, Madeira, or Marsala may be used instead of white wine.
In the two recipes previously described no decorations are used. But when there is an opportunity of decorating a hot dessert, such as a charlotte or an omelette soufflée, fruits cooked in a heavy sugar syrup are used, Then glacéed cherries and angelica are arranged on or around them for a final bright sparkle. Many hot desserts are coated with apricot sauce which should he heated.
Here is a useful trick that will help you when serving a flaming dessert. Use liqueur that has been slightly warmed and sprinkle the dessert with sugar before pouring the spirit on. Remember, too, that canned fruit has been cooked already and will be too soft if boiled. so merely heat it.
Omelette for Two
Medium-sized omelettes are as a rule better than larger ones because an omelette made of too many eggs is difficult to handle. Mix 3 to 4 eggs lightly with a fork and add ¼ teaspoon salt. Be careful not to overheat the eggs. Place 1 tablespoon butter in an omelette pan and let it become hazelnut brown. Put the eggs in the butter and stir briskly with a fork to prevent the eggs from sticking to the pan. They should congeal immediately upon contact with the hot butter. Roll the omelettee by moving the skillet and folding both sides with a fork. Invert a serving dish over the pan, then turn the pan and dish over to slip the omelette onto the dish.
Omelette au Rbum
Spread an omelette with jam or marmalade and roll it. Warm 2 or 3 ounces of rum in a pan. Turn the omelette onto a hot serving dish and sprinkle it with sugar. Pour 2 or 3 ounces of warm rum over the omelette. Light the rum and spoon the Homing spirit over the omelette. Serve immediately.
Charlotte de Poultries (Apple Charlotte)
Cut enough bread in fairly thin slices to cover the bottom and sides of a charlotte mold or deep casserole. Dip the bread in melted butter and cover the bottom and sides of the mold with over-lapping slices of the bread. This gives the finished pudding more rigidity.
Peel and quarter enough apples to fill the mold and cook in a little butter until they are soft and thick and all surplus juice is cooked away. Add a little sugar or a little lemon juice, depending on the taste of the apples. Fill the mold with apples and bake it on a heavy baking sheet in a hot oven (425° F.) for 40 to 45 minutes, or until if is golden-brown. If a heavy baking sheet is not availe, set the mold in a shallow pan with coarse salt in the bottom to prevent the bottom from browning too much. Let the mold stand for 5 to 10 minutes after removing from the oven and then invert it on a warm serving dish. Serve the charlotte with hot apricot sauce (see page 60).
Ananas à la Crème (Cream-filled Pineapple)
Remove the top of a fresh pineapple and cut out the inside pulp, leaving a shell about ½ inch thick. Cut the pulp in thin slices and cook them in a light sugar syrup for about 10 minutes. Fill the pineapple with alternating layers of crème pâtissière (see September, 1951) and the cooked pineapple, starting and finishing with the crème. Reserve some slices of pineapple for garnishing. Sprinkle with macaroon crumbs and a little melted butter. Bake in D hot oven (425° F.) until golden-brown. Arrange the pineapple on a hot serving dish and garnish with the remaining pineapple slices, coating them with apricot sauce. Canned pineapple may be similarly prepared in a baking dish.
Poires des Vignerons (Pears in Red Wine)
Peel, core, and mince 5 or 6 apples. Cook until soft in I tablespoon butter with ¼ cup sugar and a piece of stick cinnamon. Discard the cinnamon and add 3 tablespoons chopped walnuts. Bring to a boil 5 ounces of red wine, 1 cup sugar, a small piece of stick cinnamon, and a piece of lemon rind. Peel 6 pears and poach them in the wine syrup until soft. Put the apple mixture in a serving bowl and arrange the pears on top. Cook the syrup until it is reduced CO about half the original quantity and pour it over the pears. Just before serving. warm 2 ounces of rum or cognac, pour over all, and ignite at the table.
Hot rice pudding à l'anglaise is simple and very good. But rice can be used as the base of many hot desserts, and for this purpose I have always prepared a kind of rice custard which is creamy and light and which lends itself to croquettes, molded puddings, and many other dishes. The dessert is then more delectable than is ever possible when plain boiled rice is the base. In making this foundation, called rice for entremets, the trick is to cook the rice partially and then rinse out surplus starch that might make the final mixture gummy or sticky. When it is time to finish the cooking in milk, remember that unless you have a heavy pan and can turn down the heat very low it is wiser to use a doe boiler to prevent scorching.
Hot Rice Pudding à l'Anglaise
Cook 2 cups milk, ½ cup rice, and a small piece of vanilla bean in a double boiler for about 45 minutes, Stirring from time to time. Mix together 2 egg yolks, ¼ cup sugar, and ¼ cup cream and stir gently into the rice and milk. Bring to the boiling point, remove the vanilla bean, and turn the rice into a baking dish. Brown quickly in a very hot oven or under the broiler flame. Serve hot with cream.
Kiev for Entremets (Rice for Desserts)
Wash 1 cup rice in cold water, put it in a saucepan, and add cold water to cover generously. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat, and let it stand for 5 minutes. Drain the rice in a sieve and rinse well in running cold water. Return the rice to the pan or put it in the top of a doe boiler with 2 ½ cups scalded milk, 6 tablespoons sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, and a piece of vanilla bean. Bring to a boil and add 1 tablespoon butter. Cover the pan and simmer very gently for about ½ hour or cook in the top of a doe boiler for about 45 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Toss the rice with a fork to separate the grains and add 3 egg yolks mixed with 2 tablespoons cream, tossing all together carefully with a fork. Spread the mixture on a platter to cool.
Croquettes dc Riz an Confiture (Rice Croquettes with Jam)
Shape cold rice for entremets into small balls and put ½ teaspoon apricot jam in the center of each. Roll the balls in flour, dip them in beaten egg and roll in fine fresh bread crumbs. Fry in deep hot fat (370° F.) until golden-brown and drain on absorbent paper. Serve on hot plates with sabayon or fruit sauce.
Gâteau de Riz (Rice Mold with Caramel)
Wash ¾ cup rice in cold water, put it in a saucepan, and add cold water to cover generously. Bring to a boil and took for 3 to 4 minutes. Drain the rice. put it in a deep baking dish, and add 2 cups milk scalded with a piece of vanilla bean or a little vanilla extract. Bring to a boil, cover closely, and bake in a moderate oven (350° F.) or cook over low heat on the top of the range for ½ hour. Do not stir or touch the rice while it cooks.
Meanwhile, cream ½ cup sugar with 2 tablespoons butter, add 2 egg yolks, and work all together well. Remove the vanilla bean from the rice and combine the two mixtures, tossing them carefully with a fork so the rice grains will not be crushed.
Make a light caramel syrup by dissolving ½ cup sugar in 2 tablespoons water. Cook until the syrup is golden-brown. Spread the caramel syrup over the bottom and sides of a charlotte mold or baking dish, add the rice mixture, and set the mold in a pan of hot water. Bake in a slow oven (325° F.) for 40 minutes. Add a spoon of cold water occasionally to prevent the water from boiling. Let the mold stand a minute or two after removing it from the oven, then invert it on a serving, dish, and pour the caramel syrup around it.
Apple Marguerite
Peel and core baking apples of uniform size and put them in a baking dish. Put a little sugar and a little butter in the center of each and sprinkle with sugar. Pour just enough water into the pan to prevent scorching. Bake in a moderate oven (350° to 375° F.) until the apples are soft and golden-brown. Spread in a serving dish a layer of freshly cooked, still warm rice for entremets. Arrange the hot baked apples on the rice and decorate each with a daisy made of almonds. Pour apricot sauce over the fruit and serve immediately.
Fruit Bourgeoise
Spread a thick layer of freshly cooked rice for entremets in a heatproof serving dish. Arrange cooked fruit—apricots, pears, apples, or pineapple—on the rice and cover all with crème pâtissière (see September, 1951). Sprinkle with chopped almonds or macaroon crumbs and then with a little sugar. Place in a hot oven (450° F.) or under the broiler flame to brown.
Beignets Soufflés
Put 1 cup water or milk and water, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, and ½ cup butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from the heat, and beat in 1 cup flour. Return the pan to the fire and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes away cleanly from the sides of the pan. Add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well as each is added. Flavor with ½ teaspoon vanilla or with rum. Form the beignets with a tablespoon, filling the spoon half full, and slip them from the spoon into hot fat or oil (375° F.). Increase the heat a little as the beignets cook. When they are done on the underside, they turn themselves over and brown on the other side. Drain on absorbent paper, arrange on a hot serving dish, and serve with vanilla or apricot sauce (see page 60).
Beignets de Fruit (Fruit Fritters)
Sift 1 cup flour with ¼ teaspoon salt. Mix 2 tablespoons melted butter with 2 eggs and add to the flour. Add ½ cup beer gradually, stirring only until the mixture is smooth. Add ¼ cup milk, or a little more if the batter is too thick. Let the batter stand in a warm place for 1 to 1 ½ hours. It will become light and foamy. Fold in 2 stiffly beaten egg whites. Dip pieces of fruit in the batter and fry the fritters in deep hot fat (375° F.) to a golden-brown. Drain them on absorbent paper and serve with a fruit sauce. If the fruit used is very moist, dry it before putting it into the batter so that the baiter will cling to it.
Bananes Flambées (Bananas Ablaze)
Peel 6 bananas, cut them in half lengthwise, and sprinkle with sugar. Dip the pieces in flour, in beaten egg, and again in flour. Sauté them in 3 teaspoons hot butter until lightly browned on both sides. The bananas should be soft but not mushy. Arrange them side by side on a warm serving platter and sprinkle them with sugar. Pour over them 3 ounces of warm kirsch, ignite the spirit, and serve blazing.