It didn't really occur to me that Cherries Jubilee might have been a specially created recipe until the word "jubilee" kept recurring with regard to Queen Elizabeth II's celebration in 2002 of her 50th year as reigning monarch.  A little investigation revealed that the great French chef Auguste Escoffier has indeed been held responsible for creating Cherries Jubilee in honor of Queen Victoria.  There is some question, however, as to whether the dish was created to celebrate Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887 or to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in 1897.  A recent English language edition of Escoffier's "Memories of My Life" bears the footnote that it was created to celebrate the fiftieth year of her reign, or Golden Jubilee, which was in 1887, and I tend to go along with that date.

In I882 Victoria paid her first of nine visits to the French Riviera when she stayed in the town of Menton and took a drive to nearby Monte Carlo, where Escoffier was the reigning chef de cuisine at the Grand Hotel.  Her son, the Prince of Wales, was a famous visitor to the area and well-known to Escoffier as a notable gourmand.  It was also a well-known fact that Victoria was extremely fond of cherries and when the dish was created it was to be ignited at the table as a grand gesture of celebration.  Escoffier's original recipe in French can be found in his massive Guide Culinaire, originally published in 1903.  The English version from the Larousse Gastronomique (1961) goes like this:

CHERRIES JUBILEE (Original Version)
Simmer some fine stoned cherries in syrup.  Drain them, put them into little silver, fireproof porcelain or glass ovenproof dishes.  Pour the syrup into which they have cooked over them, after boiling it down and addiing to it a little cornstarch or arrowroot diluted with cold water.  Then pour into each dish a tablespoon of warmed kirsch and set flame to it at the moment of serving."

Notice something odd?  There is no ice cream in Escoffier's version!  Most people today associate the flaming dessert with cherries and vanilla ice cream.  I  believe that is the influence of another of Escoffier's popular creations, Peach Melba, created in 1894 while he was chef de cuisine at the Savoy Hotel in London.  It seems to me that, had Escoffier created Cherries Jubilee in 1897, he might well have included ice cream which eventually became a main ingredient in the dish as we know it today.

CHERRIES JUBILEE (Modern Version)
Pour the juice from a pint jar of pitted Bing cherries into the top pan, or blazer, of a chafing dish.  Place the pan directly over the flame and bring the juice to the boil.  Thicken it with 1/2 teaspoon arrowroot dissolved in a little cold water and then add the cherries.  Stir the cherries in the sauce until they are heated through.  Pour over the cherries 2 ounces of kirsch and set aflame.  Serve the flaming cherries and sauce over a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

There are many other versions of the recipe today, most of which add brandy to the mixture, and few requiring a chafing dish.  If you'd like to follow (or just read) a step-by-step recipe of the process, I refer you to Tante Marie's Cherries Jubilee which is an adaptation of the current "Joy of Cooking" version of Cherries Jubilee.

Finally, if you'd like to try a cherry dessert without the flames, there's a Basque version of the dish which claims to pre-date Escoffier's creation by about 200 years and uses almond flavoring instead of the kirsch or brandy.

CHERRIES IN SYRUP  (Basque Version)
Drain the juice from a one pound can of sour cherries.  Add 3/4 cup of corn syrup and enough water to make 1 1/2 cups of syrup.  Boil syrup for one minute.  Stir in 2 tablespoons of arrowroot or 1 tablespoon of cornstarch diluted in a little water.  Cook until slightly thickened.  Let cool and add 1/2 teaspoon of almond flavoring. Serve alone or over vanilla ice cream.

Who Cooked That Up? is copyrighted 2002 by J.J. Schnebel
all rights reserved for your pleasure and enlightenment

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