Cherries Jubilee is a French dessert invented by Auguste Escoffier to celebrate Queen Victoria’s jubilee. It involves steeping cherries in liqueur and igniting it via the flambé method. Modern versions are served with ice cream, but the original recipe did not include it. Recipes vary in terms of flavoring and sweetener. It is important to safely flambé the dish, and it is best served warm with ice cream.
Cherries Jubilee is a dramatic dessert, most often served in traditional French restaurants. Intrepid cooks can make their own version in home settings, but it takes some cooking experience, especially with the flambé method, to prepare the dessert safely. The drama of Cherries Jubilee comes from the fact that the cherries are steeped in liqueur or brandy, typically kirsch, kirshwasser or even cognac, via the flambé method, where the alcohol is ignited and mostly burned. In modern versions, Cherries Jubilee is then served with vanilla ice cream.
The famous French chef, Auguste Escoffier, is credited with inventing the Cherry Jubilee, and he did so specifically to mark England’s Queen Victoria’s Golden or Diamond Jubilee celebration. These jubilees were essentially anniversaries, celebrating the number of years Victoria had ruled. Depending on which account you attribute, the invention of Cherries Jubilee could be dated to 1887, the Queen’s 50th regnal year, or 1897, Victoria’s 60th anniversary as Queen. A version of the recipe attributed to Basque cuisine may well predate Escoffier’s dish by as much as 200 years.
The original Cherries Jubilee recipe, created by Escoffier, was first published in his 1903 book Guide Culinaire, and the English version of this recipe was recorded in the 1961 Larousse Gastronomique. No recipe mentions ice cream, although today Dessert aficionados probably wouldn’t recognize the dish without it. Peach melba, another fruit dessert invented by Escoffier in the 1890s, is served atop ice cream, suggesting the possibility that Cherry Jubilee was also intended to be served that way, or that more recent renderings of Escoffier’s recipe are confused with Peach Melba.
Dessert recipes in modern cookbooks differ, especially in terms of flavoring. Some recipes insist on using almond extract. This is possibly a reference to the Basque dish and appears to appear in numerous recipes for dessert in Jewish cookbooks. In most recipes, slightly acidic cherries are cooked in their own juices or cooked with water. Recipes suggest thickening the sauce with cornstarch or arrowroot. The amount of sweetener differs; some varieties have a lot of sugar or cornstarch added. This can detract from the overall dish, as there should be a contrast between the sweeter ice cream and the semi-tart cherries.
If you are preparing this dish at home, you should try to get it safely flambéed. If you’re cooking cherries over an open flame when you add the kirshwasser, you’ll need to put out the flame first and then use a long lighter to ignite the alcohol. Adding alcohol to cherries over an open fire can have unpredictable results, yet many chefs do just that.
Since Cherubile Jubilee is best served warm, you may want to make cups of ice cream. It only takes a few minutes for the flambé process. You will save time if you have prepared the ice cream in advance and the presentation of the dessert will go more smoothly. If you are nervous about making the dish at home, try this dish when you have lunch. The flambé technique is fun to watch and the result is very delicious.
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