Old French recipes, trial 1

What did recipes in the 1800s looked like? Going through a number of old handwritten books, I realised that most of old French recipes were savoury and not exactly very precise.  Many titles didn’t speak much to me, so I decided to have a closer look.  I am sharing my first trial at following one of the recipes of those books “old recipe 1” !

 My first cookbook

My first cookbook is very special.  Years ago, still a child, maybe 14 years old, my grandmother, who was having an extended stay at our place called me in her room.  That day, my grandmother gave me her cooking book.  She trusted I would develop strong cooking skills.  My grandmother was an amazing cook. At the time she gave me the book, she was no longer able to cook.  As a child (but no longer now), it impressed me that she could tell by smell when a cake was ready or other food.

What is amazing is that cookbooks from people in the first 1920s were fully handwritten! Such is the case for that one.   As years went pass, there are also recipes extracted from magazines or newspapers and marks to identify key recipes.

A few years back, I discovered plenty other handwritten old french recipes in archives of the family house.  From there was born the idea of selecting some of these old French recipes and making them.  This week was the first trial.

Creme blanche, the recipe

Of course, I started with a dessert.  One of the primary reason was that the ingredients required were easy to source, the other one is probably that desserts making are my strong area.

This recipe is sourced from a cooking book which had belonged to a long time departed aunt (late 1800s if I am right).

The recipe is in French, in old French and potentially with a number of spelling mistakes.

A quick english translation would be:

“White cream

Four egg whites, well beaten to stiff peaks, add to it a pint of cream, [???] lemon rind and two spoon of caster sugar.  Place the mix in a saucepan on the fire and continuously mix until it has reached second boil. Pour into a serving dish. It is served cold and should not deflate.  When you will beat the egg white on their own, use two forks, it is easier this way”

As you will understand there are a few words I could not make out. Strangely enough, the spelling in this text is quite different to modern French spelling.  I tried many internet searches but did not find anything like this recipe anywhere.

The modern “Creme Blanche”

For a start, I am not going to beat the egg whites with a fork, I have done it in the past when baking in places with little cooking equipment, it is quite a bit of work!

Then came the issue of measurement units.  The recipe calls for a pint of cream. The internet has various volumes.  I used my gut feeling and cloudy memory of old discussions and based it on half a litre.

In the recipe itself, the main challenge is not to overheat the mix or the cream will split.  Here we go:

The result

The result was a light fluffy cream.  I may have slightly overcooked it but not to the point of splitting.  It tastes good.  It is a very simple dessert as would have been desserts in those time, working with the ingredients which would have been easily accessible.