247.—Vanilla Ice Cream.
Put into a perfectly bright and clean copper basin 2 lbs. of sugar, 4 eggs, 1 large fine bean of vanilla split and cut into small pieces, stir all well together with a large wire whisk, then add 4 quarts of rich cream, place it upon the fire and stir well and constantly until it is about to boil; then immediately remove it from the fire and strain it through a hair sieve into an earthen tureen or crock; let it stand till cool, pour it into your freezing-can already imbedded in broken ice and rock-salt, cover and turn the crank slowly and steadily until it can be turned no longer, open the can and remove the dasher, scrape the hardened cream from the sides with a long-handled spatula, and beat and work the cream until smooth. Close the can, draw off the water, and repack with fresh ice and salt and let it rest for an hour or two to harden and ripen.
Ice cream is often made from fresh unscalded cream beaten vigorously during the entire freezing process, this causes it to swell and increase in bulk from a fourth to a third, but what is gained in quantity is lost in quality, as it becomes very light and snowy in texture, having no body: it is simply a frozen froth. Ice cream should be firm, smooth, and satiny, yet melting on the tongue like the best quality of gilt-edged butter.
In flavouring ice creams with fruit juices or the pulp thereof, the latter must never be cooked or scalded with the cream under any circumstances; they must be added, mixed, and beaten into the cream after it is frozen.
The process given above for vanilla ice cream is the same for all cream ices.