Crême à la Comtesse, or the Countess’s Cream

Instructions

1. Prepare as above, boil and pound, eighteen fine sound chestnuts.
2. Mix with them gradually, after they have been pressed through a fine sieve, half a pint of rich sweet cream.
3. Dissolve in half a pint of new milk a half-ounce of isinglass, then add to them from six to eight bitter almonds, blanched and bruised, with two-thirds of the rind of a small lemon, cut extremely thin, and two ounces and a half of sugar.
4. Let these simmer gently for five minutes, and then remain by the side of the fire for awhile.
5. When the milk is strongly flavoured, strain it through muslin, press the whole of it through, and stir it by degrees to the chestnuts and cream.
6. Beat the mixture smooth, and when it begins to thicken, put it into a mould rubbed with oil, or into one which has been dipped in water and shaken nearly free of the moisture.
7. If set into a cool place, it will be ready for table in six or eight hours.
8. It has a pretty appearance when partially stuck with pistachio-nuts, blanched, dried, and cut in spikes, their bright green colour rendering them very ornamental to dishes of this kind: as they are, however, much more expensive than almonds, they can be used more sparingly, or intermingled with spikes of the firm outer rind of candied citron.
9. Proportions: Chestnuts, 18; water, full 1/2 pint; sugar, 1 oz.: 15 to 25 minutes, or more. Cream, 1/2 pint; new milk, 1/2 pint; isinglass, 1/2 oz.; bitter almonds, 6 to 8; lemon-rind, two-thirds of 1; sugar, 2-1/2 oz.
10. Note: The proportions both of this and of the preceding cream must be increased for a large mould.
11. Note: This is a very delicate kind of sweet dish, which we can particularly recommend to our readers; it may be rendered more recherche by a flavouring of maraschino, but must then have a little addition of isinglass. The preparation, without this last ingredient, will be found excellent iced.