Food You Can Eat: Two Wow-Factor 1950s Desserts, Cherries Jubilee and Chocolate Charlotte Russe

2/1/24 MatthewCrawley 26
Image via St. Louis Post Dispatch
Thus begins our January retrospective of past FYCE offerings. This post is from December 3, 2020:

Though I am a man and wasn’t even alive in the 1950s I am often possessed by the spirit of a dinner party hostess circa 1958. “What Would Mamie Eisenhower Do”? (She wouldn’t do anything, living in the White House and all.)

I make these because they’re tasty and perhaps unique to someone in 2020 (or 2021, depending on when this is scheduled). But believe me, when you light the skillet aflame for the Cherries Jubilee or trot out the Charlotte Russe, your guests will be shocked and awed and glad you did. 

If you went to a high-end restaurant in 1958 both of these recipes would be far more complicated, but I’ve simplified them.

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Cherries Jubilee

This is really a topping, usually served over vanilla ice cream. I serve it over dark chocolate ice cream, because I am a contrarian.  You could also serve it over pound cake.

On medium heat, simmer some pitted cherries that you’ve marinated in a little cherry juice or, preferred, cherry liqueur, and to which you’ve added sugar, about 5 minutes. If you want to make a lot, use 1 lb. cherries to about 1/2 cup sugar. Squeeze over the juice of 1/2 a lemon. Stir a little so the sugar doesn’t caramelize at the bottom of the pan. You’ll see the juices flow from your drunken cherries and the sugar will dissolve. Most recipes involve brandy in some way, before, during, or after, but I use dark rum, maybe 2 or 3 shots’ worth. Pour this over your cherries very slowly and carefully. You’re adding alcohol to heat and you’ve got some sugar mixed in. Using a—I don’t what these are called, but they’re like a wand that you click on and a flame comes out? I have one. Or use a sturdy long wooden match if you have those—carefully create a little bonfire. The rum should flame. MAKE SURE YOUR GUESTS WATCH THIS BUT DON’T LET THEM GET TOO CLOSE. You want to show off in front of them but not endanger their lives. Shake your flaming/flambé cherries a little and the flames will go out, or let them go out by themselves, which they should in a couple of minutes. I let them sit for a little bit to calm down and then serve over the ice cream.

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Chocolate Charlotte Russe

What? You’ve never heard of this? This has been around for decades. This is my chocolate, pudding-based version for simplicity and its mid-century feel.

Whip up some whipped cream. In a small bowl add 2 cups cold whipping cream and some sugar, not a lot, maybe 1 or 2 tsp., and a little vanilla extract if you have any. I whisk this BY HAND but you can use a mixer. You want to get the cream to make peaks. If using a mixer don’t overmix. About 2 minutes should do it. Put it in the fridge.

Prepare 2 boxes of chocolate fudge pudding mix, as directed. I usually buy Jell-O because if it’s good enough for Bill Cosby—no no, sorry, scratch that. The box should be around 4 oz. It’ll tell you to add milk. Alternately, prepare 1 box of vanilla pudding, and when it’s bubbling along, stir in broken up baker’s chocolate, 4 oz., until it’s melted in. Whichever you do, let the pudding cool, and if you do the vanilla/baker’s chocolate version stir again. When the pudding is cooled, fold in some of your whipped cream, maybe about 1/3. This makes a mousse, kind of.

Here’s the fun part. Buy a bag of Stella d’Oro ladyfingers, an 8 oz. package. Or buy a bigger size if you want, because you can later dip ladyfingers into black coffee for a breakfast treat. Line a standard loaf pan with wax paper so that it goes up and around the edges. Slice the ladyfingers in half along the length and make a floor. Then, around the edges of the pan, build a halved-ladyfinger fence with no gaps. Fill halfway up with half your pudding, spoon in a whipped cream layer, fill with more pudding, and top with more whipped cream. Put the pan in your fridge for some hours. This has to be really cold and firm. Don’t refrigerate overnight though, that’s too long. If you do the chocolate pudding version you might have some left over (and also a little whipped cream, maybe.) You can refrigerate that too for a day or so, covered, and eat it when the mood strikes. Say at about 6 AM the following morning after you’re done walking the dog

Halve and hull some strawberries at some point. Try to judge how many (sizes vary) you’ll need to cover the top of your chocolate Charlotte Russe. Put those in a bowl in the fridge, covered, because you’ll have a million other things to do to make dinner for your guests. 

After dinner, and preferably not within sight of your guests, take out the strawberries and the pan, lift the Charlotte Russe out by its wax paper, and carefully transfer it to a plate. This is a little tricky. You might need to push it off the wax paper but it should be almost brick-like. Quickly decorate with your strawberries and serve. Ask Ward if he’s seen Wally and the Beav.

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26 Comments

  2. I was wondering where everyone was! For a moment I was afraid that people had some loathing of Mamie Eisenhower and it was like I said, “Ivanka Trump makes this all the time…”
     
    You can skip adding the brandy/rum at the end and lighting the whole thing aflame (that’s where the “flambé”) comes in. If you do that this isn’t much different from making cranberry sauce.

    • If they are like me, they may be a little intimidated by the flambé? I’m going to need to check my homeowner’s insurance. “Honestly, Cousin Matthew said it would be easy, Mr. Fire Chief”.

  3. Do you mean a stick lighter?

    I have a bottle of XO that is too sweet for my taste but would work perfectly for the cherries jubilee.  I would just need something vegan to put it on.

  5. I’ve seen several recipes for savory Charlottes in the last couple of years so maybe they’re a thing again. This would make a pretty dessert for entertaining.

  6. I have never heard of a chocolate charlotte russe but it sounds fun. It’s like a fancy version of a chocolate pudding pie. 
     
    But I don’t trust myself enough for flambe, besides the fact that I don’t keep any hard liquor in the house. It always looks like fun though. Occasionally I fantasize about crepes suzette, which look like they’d be really tasty. 

  7. I hit up old fashioned steak houses once a year for this desert! That and Spanish Coffee.
    See: Gibby’s in Montreal and Metropolitan Grill in Seattle.
    Oh man I hope they survive the pandemic.

    • I’ve been to Gibby’s a few times, back when I had business reasons to go to Montreal (so maybe 20 years ago). I have fond memories of the old-world feel, old-town location, top-notch staff, and seriously good food.

  9. I don’t know how to comment on such an old post, but I’m very flattered to have been chosen as the first entry in the FYCE retrospective. “It has been a pleasure to serve you.”

    • They actually make one (well, they say they did) in that movie about high school kids that I think is supposed to take place in Hawaii…it’s a really famous movie from about 2000 or so. Really juvenile humor…there’s that brain fog again.

      • Superbad! I just remembered. Also starring another one of my unrequited crushes, Michael Cera, who’s like Pete Davidson: sometimes you think he’s kind of gross and sometimes you want to rip his clothes off and…

      • @matthewcrawley I don’t think it was supposed to be in Hawaii just the fake id was from Hawaii for McLovin!

        I had that same license, it is one of the prettier licenses in the country but back in the day your drivers license number was your social security #.  Not the best idea but this was pre-ID theft being a thing.

        Have you seen This is the End?

    • Did I ever tell you [OH NO] that during this recent spell I was in the hospital and I was supposed to be transferred to the rehab at 7 am. And then it was 8:30. And so on. It was that lying bitch of a supervising nurse, not my beloved Bertha. Finally the EMTs grabbed me and loaded me into the ambulette. Once inside, one of them said, “That hospital is not really great about communicating with us. We’ve been waiting all day for you.” Lying bitch. And that’s the day I summoned Better Half to stay with me to make sure I eventually got out of  The Snake Pit (top marks if you know what that is.)

      So when you’re in the hospital or a rehab you lose all sense of time. The day I waited around for the ambulette the hospital didn’t feed me or drug me, because I think they thought I had already left and that lying [expletive deleted] didn’t disabuse them of this notion. I was transported outside and it was chilly and dark so I thought, “It must be really late so I’ll just get to the rehab and sleep and start the physical rehab tomorrow.” And remember, I had contracted Covid at the hospital, super-excellent, so I was exiled to this private quarantine room.

      Anyway, and I have no idea what time this really was, someone came by to offer me dinner, and someone else said, “And what would you like to drink?” So I said, chipper enough, “A vodka and soda. Make it a triple. It’s been a long voyage.” She was FURIOUS with me and stomped out without bringing me anything. Luckily I had my pitcher with its ice water so I could choke down the dinner offering, which was sub-par, to say the least.

      Later someone came to take the tray away and I said, about the drinks server, “What’s wrong with Sis? She could use a couple of drinks.”

      And the tray remover laughed and said, “She’s pregnant and overdue. She should have had the baby by now. She’s a little moody.”

      So armed with this knowledge, the next morning when she came in to do something for me I nosily inquired about all of this and she told me she already had five children. But, she told me, she loved them all and wanted them all, so I didn’t pass along the address of the Planned Parenthood in my neighborhood, which is not too far from the rehab.

      I told her I always wanted children myself but I’d be horrible at parenting. My child(ren) would be total horrors because I am incapable of disciplining and we’d be bankrupted by the school fees, because no child(ren) of mine would ever attend the ghastly NYC public schools. Even the exam/screened schools have suffered a decline in academic rigor, to put it mildly. Some of the better private ones cost $60,000 a year, tuition alone, and that’s where my kids would have gone. None of my parent-friends sent their kids into the public schools so I’d have my pick of personal references to these other places. But I didn’t share this background intel with her.

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