This recipe for a delicious and easily prepared ice cream was given Mary by a friend living in Philadelphia and is not original. She found the ice cream excellent and after having tried the recipe used no other. A custard was made of 1 quart of scalded milk, 6 eggs, 3 cups of sugar. The eggs were beaten light, then sugar was added, then the hot milk was poured over and all beaten together. She put all in a double boiler and stirred about ten minutes, until thick and creamy. A small pinch of soda was added to prevent curdling. When the custard was perfectly cold she stirred in three cups of sweet, cold cream, flavored with either vanilla or almond flavoring, and beat all together five minutes, then turned the mixture into the freezer, packed well with pounded ice and coarse salt. She covered the freezer with the ice and salt and threw a heavy piece of old carpet or burlap over the freezer to exclude the air. She let it stand one hour, then carefully opened the can containing the cream, not allowing any salt to get in the can. With a long, thin-handled knife she scraped down the frozen custard from the sides of the freezer, and with a thin wooden paddle beat it hard and fast for about five minutes. This made the cream fine and smooth. Any fruit may now be added, and should be mixed in before the cream is covered. The cream should be beaten as quickly as possible and covered as soon as the fruit has been added. Aunt Sarah usually made peach ice cream when peaches were in season. Fine ripe peaches were pared and pitted, then finely mashed, 2 small cups of sugar being added to a pint of mashed peaches. She allowed the peach mixture to stand one hour before adding to the beaten cream. When the mashed peaches had been added to the cream, she fastened the lid and drained off part of the water in outer vessel, packed more ice and salt about the can in the freezer, placed a weight on top to hold it down, covered closely with a piece of old carpet to exclude the air, left it stand three or four hours. The beating was all the labor required. The dasher or crank was not turned at all when making the ice cream, and when frozen it was delicious.
Mary was told by her Aunt of a friend in a small town, with a reputation for serving delicious ice cream, who always made ice cream by beating with a paddle, instead of making it by turning a crank in a freezer.
AUNT SARAH'S RECIPE FOR FROZEN CUSTARD
One quart of rich, sweet milk, 2 tablespoons of corn starch, 4 eggs, 1 cup of sugar, small tablespoon of vanilla. Cook the milk in a double boiler, moisten corn starch with a little milk. Stir it into the hot milk until it begins to thicken. Beat sugar and eggs together until creamy, add to the hot milk, cook a minute, remove from fire, add the vanilla, and when cool freeze. Crush the ice into small pieces, for the finer the ice the quicker the custard will freeze, then mix the ice with a fourth of the quantity of coarse rock salt, about 10 pounds ice and 2 pounds salt will be required to pack sides and cover top of a four-quart freezer. Place can in tub, mix and fill in ice and salt around the can, turn the crank very slowly until the mixture is thoroughly chilled. Keep hole in top of tub open. When mixture is cold, turn steadily until it turns rather hard. When custard is frozen, take out inside paddle, close the freezer, run off the salt water, repack and allow to stand several hours. At the end of that time it is ready to serve.
PINEAPPLE CREAM
This is a delicious dessert, taught Mary by Aunt Sarah. She used 1 quart sweet cream, 1½ cups sugar, beaten together. It was frozen in an ice cream freezer. She then pared and cut the eyes from one ripe pineapple and flaked the pineapple into small pieces with a silver fork, sprinkled sugar over and let it stand until sugar dissolved. She then stirred this into the frozen cream and added also the beaten white of one egg. Packed ice and salt around freezer and allowed it to stand several hours before using. Mary's Aunt always cooked pineapple or used canned pineapple with a rich syrup when adding fruit before the cream was frozen.