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Bisque
To one gallon of very rich boiled custard add three and a half pounds of macaroon almonds; the latter must be put in before removing custard from fire. When cold, freeze.
A parlour-scale formula: a gallon of custard was a full freezer can, and the recipe assumes you know how to make and churn one. The instructions are thin, so most of the work is in reading between them.
- "Macaroon almonds" means macaroons"Macaroon almonds" most likely means crumbled almond macaroons — the crisp, chewy meringue-and-almond kind — though the term was also used in the period trade for a grade of almond sold for macaroon-making, so whole nuts steeped in the hot custard cannot be ruled out. Read as macaroons, three and a half pounds to a gallon is a very heavy hand; a pound to a pound and a half of crushed macaroons per gallon gives the flecked result bisque ice cream was known for, and keeps the base from turning to paste.
- Scale it downA gallon of finished ice cream serves roughly 25-30. Three-eighths of the recipe comes to about 1.5 quarts custard and 6-8 oz crushed macaroons; note that a machine rated at 1.5 quarts holds rather less than that in unfrozen base, so churn it in two goes.
- "Very rich boiled custard"A stirred custard, not a baked one: roughly 8 egg yolks and 6 oz sugar per quart of cream or cream-and-milk. Cook it over gentle heat to 175-180F, when it coats a spoon; "boiled" here is the period name for the style, and taking it to an actual boil will scramble it.
- Why the macaroons go in hotAdding them to the custard while still on the fire lets the crumbs swell and dissolve their sugar into the base, so the almond flavour spreads instead of sitting in dry pockets. If you want visible crunch, hold back a third of the crumbs and fold them in during the last minute of churning.
- Chill fully before freezing"When cold" means refrigerator-cold and ideally aged several hours — a warm base churns slowly and freezes coarse. Overnight in the fridge is better than an hour.
- The freezerThe original assumes a hand-crank churn packed with cracked ice and rock salt, roughly three parts ice to one part salt by volume. Any modern machine works; churn until it holds a soft ribbon, then harden two to three hours in the freezer, as this base is rich enough to stay scoopable.
- A period touch worth keepingSome period bisque recipes finish with a tablespoon or two of sherry, brandy or maraschino per quart. It suits the macaroons and slightly softens the set.
In American ice-cream parlance of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, "bisque" had nothing to do with shellfish soup: it meant a frozen custard studded with crumbled baked goods — almond macaroons most often, sometimes stale sponge cake, ratafias or crushed nuts. Confectioners' manuals of the era list Bisque alongside Nesselrode and Tutti Frutti as one of the standard fancy creams. Its appearance in a general household book, in gallon quantities, reflects how ice cream was still made in this period: not by the pint for a family but by the freezer-can for a party, church supper or reception, with everyone taking turns at the crank.