A fluted strawberry Bavarian cream, pale pink, matte and fine-bubbled, turned out whole onto a white china plate on a worn green-painted sideboard, with a blue-and-white crock and a white bowl behind it. — Pale pink strawberry Bavarian cream turned out of a fluted mold.

Strawberry Bavaroise (1846)

Name: Strawberry Bavaroise
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 6 h 15 min
Total time: 7 h
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1 lb ripe strawberries, hulled; 4 oz powdered sugar; 3 1/2 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin; 1/4 cup cold water; 1 cup heavy cream, cold

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Strawberry Bavarian cream after Alexis Soyer’s 1846 Bavaroise aux Fraises: sieved strawberries set with gelatin, folded with whipped cream and turned out.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Nov 1, 2026

Recipe makes: One 6-cup mold, 8 servings
Prep: 45 min
Cook: 6 hr 15 min
Total: 7 hr

The strawberries stand in their sugar for 30 minutes before sieving, the purée thickens over ice for 10 to 20 minutes, and the cream needs at least 6 hours in the refrigerator to set. Make it the day before.

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Pale pink strawberry Bavarian cream turned out of a fluted mold.

The story behind the recipe

Isinglass, ice and a mold: a Bavaroise of the 1840s needed all three. One stood among the sweets at Waterhouse Hawkins’s dinner in the Iguanodon on the last night of 1853, between the orange jelly and the Charlotte Russe, and the bill doesn’t give its flavor. Alexis Soyer’s The Gastronomic Regenerator of 1846 gives three on one page, strawberry, raspberry with currants, and apricot, and this is the first, Bavaroise aux Fraises: fruit purée set with isinglass and lightened with whipped cream, a cold sweet turned out of a mold. Strawberries are his choice for the example. Nothing says the cooks at Sydenham used them in December.

How did a Bavaroise set without a refrigerator?

On ice, and with a fish. Soyer’s setting agent is isinglass, made from the swim bladders of fish, “previously dissolved in two wineglassfuls of water, boiled and passed through a tammie,” a fine cloth strainer. The wineglass is only his measure; there is no wine in the dish. The purée then goes “upon the ice,” stirred “until upon the point of setting,” and only then does the whipped cream go in. The mold went back on the ice to set, and was dipped in warm water to turn the cream out.

He had a fallback for a pale batch. “Should either of the above be deficient in colour,” he wrote of the strawberry and raspberry versions, “a little essence of cochineal may be used,” the red dye made from insects.

Sixty years on, Auguste Escoffier was still setting fruit purées with gelatin and whipped cream, and his version is the Apricot Bavarois (1907) from the Concorde’s menu.

Making it today

Powdered gelatin takes the place of isinglass, and the refrigerator does the work of Soyer’s ice once the cream is folded in. The quantities of fruit and sugar are half his, and the cream is a cup measured before whipping. The amount of gelatin, about 10 grams, is our choice for a cream meant to be turned out of its mold.

It closes the meal that began with Mock Turtle Soup (1846). The menu it came from, and the scientists who ate it, are in What Was Served at the Dinner Inside the Iguanodon?

No. 1255. Bavaroise aux Fraises.
Pick two pounds of fine red strawberries, which put into a basin with half a pound of powdered sugar, let them remain half an hour, then rub them through a tammie, add an ounce of isinglass, previously dissolved in two wineglassfuls of water, boiled and passed through a tammie; set the whole upon the ice, stirring until upon the point of setting, when stir in a pint of cream well whipped, pour it into the mould, which keep upon the ice till set, and when wanted dip it into warm water, and turn out upon your dish.

Alexis SoyerThe Gastronomic Regenerator: A Simplified and Entirely New System of Cookery (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1846), no. 1255, Bavaroise aux Fraises, p. 529

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Ingredients

For One 6-cup mold, 8 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for One 6-cup mold, 8 servings.

Ripe strawberries, hulled1 lb
Powdered sugar4 oz
Unflavored powdered gelatin3 1/2 tsp
Cold water1/4 cup
Heavy cream, cold1 cup

Ingredients as written here

1 lb ripe strawberries, hulled
4 oz powdered sugar
3 1/2 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
1 cup heavy cream, cold

Equipment

Fine sieve
Blender or potato masher
Large bowl
Larger bowl of ice water
Small saucepan
Whisk or electric mixer
Rubber spatula
5-cup to 6-cup mold, or eight small ramekins

Instructions

Chop the strawberries, mix them with the powdered sugar in the large bowl and leave them for 30 minutes, until they are sitting in their own juice.
Blend or mash the strawberries and press them through the fine sieve, scraping the underside, to make a smooth purée. Throw away the seeds left in the sieve.
Sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the cold water in the small saucepan and leave it for 5 to 10 minutes to soften. Warm it very gently, stirring, until it is completely clear. Don’t let it boil.
Whisk a little of the purée into the gelatin, then whisk the mixture back into the rest of the purée.
Set the bowl in the larger bowl of ice water and stir for 10 to 20 minutes, until the purée is cold and just beginning to thicken, like raw egg white. If it sets in lumps, warm it gently until it runs and cool it again.
Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Fold a third of it into the thickening purée, then fold in the rest until no streaks remain.
Rinse the mold with cold water, pour in the cream and smooth the top. Cover and refrigerate at 40°F (4°C) or below for at least 6 hours, or overnight, until firm.
To serve, dip the outside of the mold in warm water for a few seconds, loosen the edge with a knife, lay a chilled plate on top and turn it over. Keep it in the refrigerator until it goes to the table.

Nutrition

180calories per serving

Recipe makes: One 6-cup mold, 8 servings
Servings: 8

Estimated per serving (8) from USDA FoodData Central values for strawberries, powdered sugar, heavy cream and gelatin, counting all the fruit before sieving.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Scales by the mold. Soyer’s own batch is about double this one. A larger mold needs a little longer to set.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Soyer’s batch is two pounds of strawberries, half a pound of sugar, an ounce of isinglass and a pint of cream well whipped. Our changes: half the fruit and sugar; powdered gelatin for isinglass, about 10 grams, softened in cold water and warmed without boiling; a quarter cup of water for his “two wineglassfuls”; a cup of cream measured before whipping, since Soyer doesn’t say whether his pint was measured before or after; a blender and a sieve for his tammie; and the refrigerator in place of the ice for the setting. Frozen unsweetened strawberries, thawed, can be used with their juice. Eight small ramekins can stand in for the mold; serve them in their dishes.

Keep it covered in the refrigerator; USDA advice is to eat refrigerated leftovers within 3 to 4 days. Contains milk. Gelatin is made from animal bones and skin.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.