Have ready two quarts of very rich thick cream, and take out a pint.
Stir gradually into the pint, a pound of the best loaf-sugar powdered
fine; and the grated rind and the juice of four ripe lemons of the
largest size, or of five or six smaller ones. If you cannot procure
the fruit, you may flavour the cream with essence or oil of lemon; a
tea-spoonful or more, according to its strength. The strongest and best
essence of lemon is the white or whitish; when tinged with green, it
is comparatively weak, having been diluted with water; if quite green,
a large tea-spoonful will not communicate as much flavour as five or
six drops of the white. After you have mixed the pint of cream with the
sugar and lemon, beat it gradually and hard into the remaining cream,
that is, the three pints. Cover it, and let it stand to infuse from
half an hour to an hour. Then taste it, and if you think it necessary,
stir in a little more lemon juice or a little more sugar. Strain it
into the freezer through a fine strainer, (a tin one with small close
holes is best,) to get rid of the grated lemon-peel, which if left
in would prevent the cream from being smooth. Cover the freezer, and
stand it in the ice cream tub, which should be filled with a mixture,
in equal quantities, of coarse salt, and ice broken up as small as
possible, that it may lie close and compact round the freezer, and thus
add to its coldness. Snow, when it can be procured, is still better
than ice to mix with the salt. It should be packed closely into the
tub, and pressed down hard. While the cream is freezing, keep it always
in motion, whirling the freezer round by the handle, and opening the
lid frequently to stir and beat the cream, and to scrape it down from
the sides with a long-handled tin spoon. Take care that no salt gets
in, or the cream will be spoiled. When it is entirely frozen, take it
out of the freezer and put it into your mould; set it again in the
tub, (which must be filled with fresh ice and salt,) and leave it
undisturbed till you want it for immediate use. This second freezing,
however, should not continue longer than an hour, or the cream will
become inconveniently and unpleasantly hard, and have much of the
flavour frozen out of it. Place the mould in the ice tub, with the head
downwards, and cover the tub with pieces of old carpet while the second
freezing is going on. When it has arrived at the proper consistence,
and it is time to serve it up, dip a cloth in cold water, and wash it
round the mould for a few moments, to loosen the cream and make it come
out easily; setting the mould on a glass or china dish. If a pyramid
or obelisk mould, lift it carefully off the top. If the mould or form
represents doves, dolphins, lap-dogs, fruit baskets, &c. it will open
down the middle, and must be taken off in that manner. Serve it up
immediately lest it begin to melt. Send round sponge-cake with it, and
wine or cordials immediately after.
If you have no moulds, but intend serving it up in a large bowl or in
glasses, it must still be frozen twice over; otherwise it can have no
smoothness, delicacy, or consistence, but will be rough and coarse, and
feel in the mouth like broken icicles. The second freezing (if you have
no mould) must be done in the freezer, which should be washed out, and
set again in the tub with fresh ice and salt. Cover it closely and let
the cream stand in it untouched, but not less than two hours. When you
put it into glasses, heap it high on the top.
Begin to make ice cream about four or five hours before it is wanted
for use. If you commence it too early, it may probably be injured by
having to remain too long in the second freezing, as it must not be
turned out till a few moments before it is served up. In damp weather
it requires a longer time to freeze.
If cream is scarce, mix with it an equal quantity of rich milk, and
then add, for each quart, two table-spoonfuls of powdered arrow-root
rubbed smooth in a little cold milk. Orange ice cream is made in the
same manner as lemon.
STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM.--Take two quarts of ripe strawberries; hull them,
and put them into a deep dish, strewing among them half a pound of
powdered loaf-sugar. Cover them, and let them stand an hour or two.
Then mash them through a sieve till you have pressed out all the juice,
and stir into it half a pound more of powdered sugar, or enough to make
it very sweet, and like a thick syrup. Then mix it by degrees with two
quarts of rich cream, beating it in very hard. Put it into a freezer,
and proceed as in the foregoing receipt. In two hours, remove it to a
mould, or take it out and return it again to the freezer with fresh
salt and ice, that it may be frozen a second time. In one hour more, it
should be ready to turn out.
RASPBERRY ICE CREAM--Is made according to the preceding receipt.
PINE-APPLE ICE CREAM.--To each quart of cream allow a large ripe
pine-apple, and a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Pare the pine-apple,
slice it very thin, and mince it small. Lay it in a deep dish and strew
the sugar among it. Cover the dish, and let the pine-apple lie in the
sugar for two or three hours. Then strain it through a sieve, mashing
and pressing out all the juice. Stir the juice gradually into the
cream, beating it hard. Put it into the freezer, and let it be twice
frozen before it is served up.
VANILLA ICE CREAM.--Take a large vanilla bean, and boil it slowly in
half a pint of milk till all the flavour is drawn out, which you may
know by tasting it. Then mix into the milk half a pound of powdered
loaf-sugar, and stir it very hard into a quart of rich cream. Put it
into the freezer, and proceed as directed in the receipt for Lemon Ice
Cream; freezing it twice.
ALMOND ICE CREAM.--Take six ounces of bitter almonds, (sweet ones will
not do,) blanch them, and pound them in a mortar, adding by degrees a
little rose water. Then boil them gently in a pint of cream till you
find that it is highly flavoured with them. Then pour the cream into
a bowl, stir in a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, cover it, and set it
away to cool gradually; when it is cold, strain it, and then stir it
gradually and hard into three pints of cream. Put it into the freezer,
and proceed as directed in the first ice cream receipt. Freeze it
twice. It will be found very fine.
Send round always with ice cream, sponge cake or Savoy biscuits.
Afterwards wine, and cordials, or liqueurs as they are now generally
called.
ICE ORANGEADE.--Take a pint and a half of orange juice, and mix it
with half a pint of clear or filtered water. Stir in half a pound
of powdered loaf-sugar. Pare very thin the yellow rind of six
deep-coloured oranges, cut in pieces, and lay it at the bottom of a
bowl or tureen. Pour the orange juice and sugar upon it; cover it,
and let it infuse an hour. Then strain the liquid into a freezer, and
proceed as for ice cream. When it is frozen, put it into a mould, (it
will look best in the form of a pine-apple,) and freeze it a second
time. Serve it in glass cups, with any sort of very nice sweet cakes.
ICE LEMONADE--May be made in the above manner, but with a larger
proportion of sugar.
The juice of pine-apples, strawberries, raspberries, currants and
cherries, may be prepared and frozen according to the above receipts.
They will freeze in a shorter time than if mixed with cream, but are
very inferior in richness.