Is There a Nutmeg in the House? (44 page)

3. FROM ELIZABETH RAFFALD’S
THE EXPERIENCED ENGLISH HOUSEKEEPER
, 1769.

To make
ICE CREAM

Pare, stone, and scald twelve ripe apricots, beat them fine in a marble mortar, put to them six ounces of double refined sugar, a pint of scalding cream, work it through a hair sieve, put it into a tin that has a close cover, set it in a tub of ice broken small, and a large quantity of salt put amongst it, when you see your cream grow thick round the edges of your tin, stir it, and set it in again till it grows quite thick, when your cream is all froze up, take it out of your tin, and put it into the mould you intend it to be turned out of, then put on the lid, and have ready another tub with ice and salt in as before, put your mould in the middle, and lay your ice under and over it, let it stand four or five hours, dip your tin in warm water when you turn it out; if it be summer, you must not turn it out till the moment you want it: you may use any sort of fruit if you have not apricots, only observe to work it fine.

Note

The text has been copied from the eighth edition of 1782,
p. 249
. I understand that it does not differ from the text of the first edition. It is the fourth of forty recipes in Chapter X, devoted to Creams, Custards and Cheesecakes; and is the only ice cream in the collection.

Petits Propos Culinaires
No. 1, 1979

Making Ice Cream

Some of the most delicious ice creams I have ever eaten were the ones made by Suleiman, my Sudanese cook in Cairo. He used an ancient ice bucket borrowed from goodness knows where. It made a fearful clatter, as of tons of coal being flung into the kitchen, as he whirled the handle round. It was of no consequence, because the old ice pail, in common with much other scarce kitchen equipment, went the rounds in war-time Cairo and nearly everybody was familiar with this characteristic background noise at dinner-parties. We knew it heralded the appearance of some confection as delectable as any that ever came from Gunters of Berkeley Square or Florians in Venice, in the days when ice creams really were ice creams, and a special treat for parties and holidays rather than something you buy along with the groceries and detergents from the shop on the corner.

Ice creams, real ones that is, are made with several different basic mixtures, of which the two main ones are either pure thick uncooked cream, fruit pulp and sugar syrup, or a custard made from milk or cream and egg yolks plus fruit pulp or some basic flavouring. These latter tend to freeze to a better consistency than those made of raw cream, but when fresh uncooked fruit such as strawberries and raspberries is being used the eggs, I find, detract rather from the flavour of the fruit. On the other hand, as a basis for flavourings such as lemon or coffee the rich custard is ideal. There is, of course, a big difference in price between milk and single cream; the advantage of the cream is that it makes a better-textured ice and that it cooks to a custard with the eggs in a very short time, much quicker and more efficiently than milk. In any case, if you are using milk, use rich full cream milk.

When made of the right ingredients and presented in their simplest form, unadorned with such things as chocolate and fudge sauces or fussed up with extra fruit, cake and the like, ice creams make an excellently digestive and welcome finish even to the heaviest meal.

Refrigerator ices have never, I think, entirely the consistency or professional finish of those made in the old-fashioned bucket, but if they are carefully made they can nevertheless be most delicious, and a revelation to anyone who has never known any but commercial ice creams.

IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT REFRIGERATOR ICES ARE:

1. 1. Turn the dial to maximum freezing point well before you put the ice mixture, which should already be well chilled, in to freeze. The quicker ice creams are frozen the better the consistency.
   
2. 2. Cover the filled ice trays with foil; this protective covering does much to eliminate the risk of ice crystals forming in the cream.
   
3. 3. While it is not strictly necessary to stir the ice during freezing, it will emerge with a more even consistency, and also freeze quicker, if you do.
   
4. 4. The easiest and best-looking way to serve refrigerator ice creams is to have a long narrow flat dish on to which you can turn out the ice direct from the trays without breaking it up. Then cut it into portions for serving. If you have a refrigerator with a large enough ice-chamber to hold a deeper container than the ice trays, then you can make an ice of a rather better shape – using, for example, a decorative old-fashioned ice-pudding mould or a cake tin. But the container must be of metal or plastic. China or earthenware will not work.
   
5. 5. If the weather is exceptionally hot, allow rather longer freezing time than is given in the recipes below. Also, one needs to be fairly well acquainted with the vagaries of one’s own refrigerator. In some the freezing process takes longer than in others.
   
6. 6. Refrigerator ices tend to melt rather quickly, so should only be taken from the ice-chamber shortly before serving. On the other hand a good ice should never be rock hard. It should be creamy round the edges just beginning to melt, so, if necessary give it a few minutes out of the fridge to soften a little before serving.
   
7. 7. Home-made refrigerator ice creams can be refrozen quite suc cessfully. Commercial ones cannot.
   
8. 8. I have heard people say that they find it impossible to make ices for dinner-parties because that is just the time when the ice cubes are needed for drinks. But even if you have no thermos container, all you have to do is to transfer the ice cubes to a bowl and, at the low freezing temperature to which the fridge is turned to freeze the ice cream, they will keep perfectly intact for hours.
   
9. 9. The recipes below are calculated for either 300-ml, 600-ml or 1.2-litre (½-pint, 1-pint or 2-pint) ice trays. Since it is advisable to have your trays all but full for the freezing process, the quantities should be adjusted to suit the capacity of your own ice trays.
   

Nowadays most people who make ice cream regularly have an ice cream maker. All of the recipes in this chapter can be made successfully in such a machine, following the manufacturer’s instructions. I have included Elizabeth’s notes on how to freeze ices in ice trays for those who don’t have a machine. They work well.

JN

LEMON ICE CREAM

450 ml (¾ pint) of single cream or milk, the yolks of 3 large or 4 small eggs, 125 g (4 oz) of soft white sugar, the juice and grated peel of 1 large lemon.

Grate the peel of the lemon into the cream or milk. Pour over the egg yolks beaten with the sugar. Stir over low heat until you have a thin custard. Strain through a fine sieve and stir until half cooled.

When quite cold add the strained juice of half the lemon.

Turn into the ice tray, cover with foil, and freeze at maximum freezing point for 2½ to 3 hours. Enough for 4, and a most refreshing and lovely ice.

COFFEE ICE CREAM

This is a luxury ice cream: expense, time, trouble, but immensely good, and delicate in flavour.

600 ml (1 pint) of single cream, 150 ml (5 fl oz) of double cream, 125 g (4 oz) freshly roasted coffee beans, the yolks of 3 eggs, 90 g (3 oz) pale brown sugar, a strip of lemon peel, a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon of white sugar.

Crack the coffee beans very slightly with a pestle in a marble mortar. Put them in a saucepan with the single cream, the lemon peel, brown sugar and well-beaten egg yolks, and salt. Cook over very gentle heat, stirring until the mixture thickens, then, off the fire, continue stirring until the mixture has partially cooked. Strain through a fine sieve.

Immediately before freezing, fold in the double cream, lightly whipped with the white sugar. Turn into the freezing tray of the refrigerator, which should already be turned to maximum freezing point, cover and place in the freezing compartment. It will take about 3 hours to freeze; and whether or not you need to turn it sides to middle once or twice during the process depends upon your refrigerator. Enough for 4.

RASPBERRY ICE CREAM

An ice cream with a most intense and beautiful fresh raspberry flavour.

500 g (1 lb) raspberries, 125 g (4 oz) red currants, 125 g (4 oz) sugar, 150 ml (¼ pint) of water, the juice of half a lemon, 150 ml (5 fl oz) of double cream.

Pick the raspberries over very carefully and discard any that are the slightest bit mouldy. This is essential, for even one mouldy one may spoil the taste of the whole mixture. Pick the red currants from the stalks. Press all the fruit through a nylon or stainless steel sieve (a wire sieve discolours the fruit).

Make a syrup from the sugar and water by boiling them together for 5 minutes. When it is quite cold, and not before, add this syrup to the fruit pulp. Squeeze in the lemon juice.

Immediately before freezing, whip the cream very lightly, just until it is heavy and thick, and fold it into the fruit.

Turn into the ice tray, cover with foil and freeze at maximum freezing point for 2½ to 3 hours. Enough for 4.

House & Garden
, July 1959

APRICOT ICE CREAM

625 g (1¼ lb) of ripe apricots, 250 ml (8 fl oz) of water, 90 g (3 oz) of sugar, the juice of half a large lemon, 300 ml (½ pint) of double cream. Optionally, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of apricot brandy.

Wipe the apricots – there will be 20 to 24 apricots – with a soft cloth, put them in an ovenproof dish with the water. No sugar at this stage. Cover the pot. Cook the apricots in a low oven, 170°C/ 325°F/gas mark 3, for about 35 minutes or until they are soft. When cool, strain off the juice into a saucepan. Add the sugar, and boil to a thin syrup.

Stone the apricots, keeping aside a few of the stones. Purée the fruit. Pour the cooled syrup into the purée. Add the lemon juice. Crack 3 or 4 apricot stones, extract the kernels and crush them to powder. Stir this into the purée, then press the purée through a fine stainless steel or nylon sieve. Chill it thoroughly in the refrigerator.

Before freezing, taste for sweetness, adding more lemon juice if necessary. Turn into a metal or plastic container of about 1-litre (1¾-pint) capacity and transfer to the freezer.

After 2½ hours or so, turn the half-frozen ice into the food processor or high-power blender or beater and beat until the ice crystals have disappeared. If you have no suitable electric machine, use a big bowl and a heavy whisk or fork. Add the cream and the apricot brandy, and taste again for sweetness. Re-pack the cream into the container and return to the freezer.

In approximately 3 hours the ice should be frozen to about the right consistency for serving. An extra refinement is to give the ice a second rapid breakdown in the blender or food processor a short while – about 10 minutes – before serving. This restores the thick creamy texture of a good ice cream, and it can now be turned into a dish ready for serving, and returned to the freezer for a quarter of an hour. Alternatively, the second breakdown can be performed while the ice cream is still only two-thirds frozen. It is then turned into a simple or fancy mould and returned to the freezer until set.

Notes

1. 1. To crack the apricot stones I have found that an ancient, common, metal nutcracker of the most basic design is also the most effective.
   
2. 2. An alternative to using the apricot kernels is to crush up one or two Italian
   amaretti di Saronno
   , the little macaroons wrapped in crackly tissue paper, which are in fact made with apricot kernels, not with bitter almonds as was generally assumed until the listing of ingredients in packed confectionery became compulsory. Not that the
   Saronno
   people have anything to conceal. They tell me that their
   amaretti
   have always been made with apricot kernels.
   

Unpublished, 1960s

ALMOND ICE CREAM

This is a very delicate ice. The mixture can also be used as a basis for several fruit ices such as strawberry, orange, raspberry.

60 g (2 oz) of almonds, 90 g (3 oz) of sugar, 450 ml (¾ pint) of milk, 3 egg yolks, 150 ml (5 fl oz) of double cream, 2 tablespoons of Kirsch.

First skin the almonds. The best way to do this is to drop them in a small saucepan of boiling water, remove from the heat at once, and with a perforated spoon extract about half the almonds. Peel off the skins, then repeat the process with the remainder. Put the skinned almonds on a fireproof plate or dish in a very slow oven. Leave them for about 7 minutes, just long enough to dry them, but not to toast or colour them. Pound them to powder in a mortar or grind them in a food chopper. (Unless the almonds are very dry, this process will be difficult.)

Bring the milk and sugar to the boil, stirring all the time. Stir in the pounded almonds. Have the egg yolks ready beaten in the liquidiser or a bowl, pour the hot almond and milk mixture over them, give the whole lot a rapid whirl, return to the saucepan and cook gently, again stirring all the time, until the custard begins to thicken. Immediately take it from the heat, give it another whirl in the liquidiser or beat it in a chilled bowl, strain it through a fine sieve, chill it in the refrigerator.

Before freezing, stir in the cream and the Kirsch.

Notes

1. 1. Don’t let the custard cook much beyond the stage when it begins to thicken. Completely cooked egg yolks don’t expand during the freezing process.
   
2. 2. If you are using a sweet Kirsch liqueur rather than the white alcohol version, reduce the sugar in the custard by 15 g (½ oz).
   
3. 3. Instead of Kirsch, a few drops of genuine bitter almond essence may be used, but be sure that the essence is the true one. The synthetic version won’t do.
   

STRAWBERRY AND ALMOND ICE CREAM

To the almond ice mixture on
page 277
, add a purée made from 250 g (½/ lb) of hulled strawberries plus an extra 30 g (1 oz) of sugar and the juice of half an orange. This makes a most delicious and subtle ice.