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French Vanilla Ice Cream
One quart of very rich sweet cream, half a pound of granulated sugar, and the yolks of six eggs. Put the cream and sugar in a porcelain kettle over the fire; when they come to a boil strain through a hair sieve, then add the eggs, well beaten, slowly to the cream and sugar while hot; stir rapidly. Place on the fire again; stir a few minutes; pour into the freezer, and flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla.
A straight custard base — what is still called French-style ice cream, as opposed to the uncooked Philadelphia style. The proportions are sound; only the handling of the hot custard needs rethinking.
- The hinge: do not let the custard boilOnce the yolks go in, the mixture must be held below a simmer. Cook it gently to 170–175F, until it coats the back of a spoon; a boil scrambles the yolks and no amount of straining recovers the texture.
- Chill before churningThe recipe pours the hot custard straight into the freezer; a crank churn packed with ice and rock salt could absorb a good deal of heat, though many period recipes cooled the custard first. Modern machines cannot. Cool the custard over an ice bath, then refrigerate it at least four hours, preferably overnight — the rest also lets the flavor settle and gives a smoother freeze.
- Half a pound of sugarGranulated sugar weighs about 7 oz to the cup, so this is a generous cup and an eighth — roughly 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons. Weighing is more reliable here, since sugar content governs how hard the finished cream sets.
- Porcelain kettleAn enameled cast-iron or stainless saucepan. The point was a non-reactive surface: bare iron or copper would discolor an egg custard and give it a metallic edge.
- Hair sieveA fine sieve of woven horsehair. A fine-mesh strainer does the same work, and it is worth straining a second time after the eggs are cooked, not just before, to catch any set threads of yolk.
- Very rich sweet cream"Sweet" means unsoured, not sugared. Heavy cream (36 percent) is the closest match for "very rich" cream, though a quart of straight heavy cream with six yolks makes a very dense ice cream. Half heavy cream and half whole milk gives a lighter result.
- VanillaA teaspoon of extract, stirred in after the custard has cooled rather than while hot, so the aromatics are not driven off. A split bean steeped in the hot cream is the older method and gives a better flavor.
- YieldAbout 1¼ quarts before churning, and a little more once air is beaten in — eight to ten servings.
The distinction between "French" and "Philadelphia" ice cream appears in American cookbooks from the later nineteenth century onward: the French kind is built on a cooked egg-yolk custard, the Philadelphia kind on nothing but sweetened cream and flavoring. A yolk-thickened base freezes smoother and holds up better on the plate. What makes this version domestic rather than professional is the freezer — the hand-cranked pail packed with ice and coarse salt, common enough household equipment by the later nineteenth century that a recipe could say "pour into the freezer" without explaining anything further.