Vanilla Ice-cream.
Beat the yolks of eight eggs with three-quarters of a pound of sugar until very light. Put one and a half pints of rich milk on the fire to scald, highly flavored with the powdered vanilla-bean (say, one heaping table-spoonful). When the milk is well scalded, stir it into the eggs as soon as it is cool enough not to curdle. Now stir the mixture constantly (the custard pan or pail being set in a vessel of boiling water) until it has slightly thickened. Do not let it remain too long and curdle, or it will be spoiled. When taken off the fire again, mix in a quarter of a box of gelatine, which has been soaked half an hour in two table-spoonfuls of lukewarm water near the fire. The heat of the custard will be sufficient to dissolve it, if it is not already sufficiently dissolved. Cool the custard well before putting it into the freezer, as this saves time and ice. When it is in the freezer, however, stir it almost constantly until it begins to set; then stir in lightly a pint of cream, whipped. Stir it for two or three minutes longer, put it into a mold, and return it to a second relay of ice and salt. The powdered vanilla can be purchased at drug-stores or at confectioners’. It is much better than the extract for any purpose, and is used by all the best restaurateurs.
Delmonico Vanilla Cream.
Ingredients: One and a half pints of cream, one ounce of isinglass, one pound of sugar, yolks of eight eggs, half a pint of milk, vanilla powder.
Scald the cream only; then add the isinglass dissolved in the milk, and pour it on the sugar and eggs beaten together to a froth; add the flavoring. Strain, cool, and freeze it; then pack it for three hours and a half at least.
Chocolate Ice-cream
is made in the same way as the vanilla ice-cream, adding a flavoring of chocolate and a little vanilla powder. For instance, to make a quart and a half of cream: Make the boiled custard with the yolks of six eggs, half a pound of sugar, one pint of boiled milk, and a tea-spoonful (not heaping) of vanilla powder. Pound smooth four ounces of chocolate; add a little sugar and one or two table-spoonfuls of hot water. Stir it over the fire until it is perfectly smooth. Add this and a table-spoonful of thin, dissolved gelatine to the hot custard. When about to set in the freezer, add one pint of cream, whipped.
To Make a Mold of Chocolate and Vanilla Creams.
Freeze the different creams in two freezers. Cut a piece of pasteboard to fit the centre of a mold; fill each side with the two creams, remove the pasteboard, and imbed the mold in ice and salt for two hours.