June 21, 2015

Finest Hour 100, Autumn 1998

Page 50

By Georgina Landemare, the Churchills’ Cook • Edited and annotated for the modern kitchen by Barbara F. Langworth (Email: [email protected])

After the end of the Second World War, Winston Churchill was made an Honorary Member of Boodles—a distinction previously confined almost exclusively to members of the Royal Family. This story may be apocryphal, but it is said he had only one request when he visited the club for luncheon, accompanied by Lord Cherwell and Harold Macmillan: that he might sit in the bow window facing St. James’s and smoke his cigar; which he did, attracting quite a small crowd outside. According to The Gentlemen’s Clubs of London, Lejeune & Lewis (London: Macdonald and Jane’s 1979, p62), he summed up what so many generations have felt about Boodles’s. He said, “I like this club.”

A fool is a traditional English dessert made of whipped cream and mashed fruit—originally cooked gooseberries. I’ve found two possible derivations of the word fool: one is that the combination of fruit puree and cream was once considered foolish; the other is that the word derives from the French fouler, meaning “to crush.” Any cooked or pureed fruit can be used. Thick cream or even a custard can be substituted for the whipped cream. This recipe does not whip the cream, but uses a cake base.

6 sponge cakes (or dessert shells, or 1 pkg. lady fingers)
4 oranges – grate two, juice all four
2 lemons – grate one, juice both
3/4 pt cream (UK) or one 16 oz. pint
1/4 cup sugar

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Cut up sponge cakes lengthwise in slices and place in a glass dish. (Or prepare for six individual servings.)

In a bowl put the grated rind of 1 lemon and 2 oranges and the juice of all the fruit. Mix with the cream and sugar. Pour all over the sponge cakes and allow to stand for six hours before serving.