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Cocoanut Ice Cream
Take a fresh cocoanut; grate it fine, one cupful and a half of sugar, rind and juice of a lemon; mix this with one quart of sweet cream. Freeze, and during the process keep the cream well stirred from the bottom and sides.
A very plain custard-free ice cream: cream, sugar, fresh coconut and lemon, frozen in a hand-crank pail. Two things need attention before you start — how much coconut a whole nut actually gives, and what the acid will do to the cream.
- Add the lemon last, and slowlyLemon juice in a quart of cream will thicken and can curdle it, especially if the cream is not very cold. Chill everything, stir the sugar and grated coconut into the cream first, then whisk the juice in gradually just before freezing.
- How much coconut"A fresh cocoanut" is not a measurement. A medium nut yields roughly 3 to 4 cups of finely grated meat, which is a great deal against one quart of cream; 2 cups gives a cleaner result if you want the cream to stay smooth rather than fibrous.
- Sweet creamNineteenth-century "sweet cream" simply means fresh cream as opposed to soured. Use heavy or whipping cream; anything lighter freezes hard and grainy.
- Steep for flavourGrated coconut gives up its flavour slowly. Mix the base and hold it in the refrigerator for a few hours, or warm a third of the cream with the coconut and then chill the lot, if you want coconut taste rather than just coconut texture.
- Zest, not pith"Rind" here means the coloured outer peel. Grate it finely or steep strips in the cream and remove them; white pith turns the whole batch bitter.
- The stirring instructionConstant scraping from the bottom and sides is the essential work of freezing, whether done by hand in a pot freezer or by the dasher of a crank machine; the recipe does not say which. It is the difference between ice cream and a block of ice. In a modern machine the churn handles it; in a shallow-pan freezer method, scrape and beat every 20 to 30 minutes until firm.
- Sugar levelA cup and a half in a quart is on the high side by modern taste but is doing structural work — sugar keeps the mixture from freezing solid. Cut it much below a cup and the result will be icy and hard to scoop.
- YieldAbout a quart and a half after churning, or six to eight servings. Ripen it an hour or two in the freezer before serving.
Coconut was commonly sold in American groceries as a whole nut, cracked and grated at home, which is why the recipe begins with grating rather than with a measured cup; packaged shredded coconut was also coming onto the market. Ice cream itself had shifted from a luxury to a household possibility with the spread of cheap hand-crank freezers and commercial ice delivery, and books of this era print dozens of variations built on the same simple template of cream, sugar and one flavouring. This version is what was often called a Philadelphia-style ice cream: no eggs, no cooked custard, nothing between the cream and the flavour. The lemon brightens a fat-heavy base.<br><br>Note that the spelling "cocoanut" was common well into the twentieth century, and is generally said to reflect an old confusion with cocoa rather than any different ingredient.