Cherries Jubilee is a dish with real heritage. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given its name, it was created to celebrate a jubilee: it is thought to have been created by Escoffier for Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee celebration in 1897. It consists of cherries cooked in flaming brandy, and then served warm over vanilla ice cream, although in the original dish it was even more pared down, lacking the ice cream element.
The dish is flambéd, which means that the alcohol from the kirsch is ignited with an open flame, and cooked off quickly. Of course, safety is paramount: don’t let your six year old nephew take charge of this bit, make sure you’re doing it in an area which doesn’t contain flammable materials, and not in the vicinity of anything else which could catch light. Have a lid on hand, just in case you need to extinguish the flames quickly. It carries its risks, of course, but there are few things to make you feel more competent as a cook than watching the blue flames licking the cherries, before ebbing.
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