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. Keep
turning the freezer about by the handle till the cream is frozen,
which it will generally be in two hours. Occasionally open the lid
and scrape down the cream 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 two hours, 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 hot
water, and wrap 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 five or six 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.