Baked Alaska
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| Baked Alaska | |
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| Banana Baked Alaska | |
| Origin Information | |
| Alternate Names(s): | glace au four omelette à la norvégienne Norwegian omelette omelette surprise |
| Country of Origin : | China |
| Dish Information | |
| Course Served : | Dessert |
| Variations : | Bombe Alaska |
Baked Alaska (also known as glace au four, omelette à la norvégienne, Norwegian omelette and omelette surprise) is a dessert made of ice cream placed in a pie dish lined with slices of sponge cake or Christmas pudding and topped with meringue. The entire dessert is then placed in an extremely hot oven for just long enough to firm the meringue. The meringue is an effective insulator, and the short cooking time prevents the heat from getting through to the ice cream.
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[edit] Invention and Development
The notion of cooking a dessert with ice cream as its core ingredient within an insulated covering seems to have originated with the Chinese, who used pastry for the casing.[1] It was introduced to Europe in the mid-nineteenth century when a Chinese delegation visited Paris. The use of meringue was then introduced in 1804 by the American physicist Benjamin Thompson. He investigated the heat resistance of beaten egg whites; the results demonstrated that while pastry would conduct the heat to the ice cream, beaten egg whites would do so to a lesser extent. The dish was named omelette surprise or omelette à la norvégienne; the Norwegian epithet was used as a consequence of its arctic appearance and cold centre. This title transformed into "Baked Alaska" in 1876 when Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City named it in honour of the newly acquired territory of Alaska. It was popularised worldwide by the chef Jean Giroix in 1895 at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo.
The dessert was once a popular choice for dinner parties, especially throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but its popularity has waned in recent years.
[edit] Variations
A variation called Bombe Alaska calls for some dark rum to be splashed over the Baked Alaska. Lights are then turned down and the whole dessert is flambéd while being served.
Another version calls for raspberry filling to be substituted for the ice cream, or even for the filling to be added along with the ice cream.
The process was simplified in 1974 by Jacqueline Halliday Diaz who invented a baking pan for Baked Alaska that forms a fillable hollow.
In 1969, the recently invented microwave oven enabled Hungarian physicist and "molecular gastronomist" Nicholas Kurti to produce a "reverse Baked Alaska", aka Frozen Florida (hot on the inside and cold on the outside).
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- On an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, Andy and Barney are invited to the private "Esquire Club" at which they are served Baked Alaska. When Andy asks the host about the dessert and indicates that he's never heard of it, Barney incorrectly asserts "Sure you have, Andy. It's that new dessert that's come out since it became a state."
- Baked Alaska is a common dessert of the last night on cruise ships.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- "Baked Alaska" An A-Z of Food and Drink. Ed. John Ayto. Oxford University Press, 2002. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Miami University, Ohio. 20 February 2006
