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Almond and Orange Ice
Blanch and pound one ounce of sweet almonds with a little orange-flower water to prevent them oiling. Put them into a saucepan with one pint of cream and the yolks of three eggs well beaten. Stir constantly till the egg thickens, then pour it out, let it cool, put it into the freezing-pot, and work the handle until it is sufficiently frozen. Put half a pound of loaf sugar and a cupful of water into an enamelled saucepan, with the white of an egg beaten to a stiff froth, and the thin rind of an orange. Put it on the fire and bring it to a syrup, then add to it three-quarters of a pint of orange-juice. Strain this and freeze it like the almond cream. Put a piece of cardboard into the mould, dividing it in two. Place the almond ice on one side and the orange ice on the other. Remove the cardboard, close the mould, and let it remain in the ice until wanted. Time, half an hour to freeze. Sufficient for a quart of ice. Probable cost, 4s.
A two-part moulded ice: an almond custard on one side, an orange water-ice on the other. Everything here works in a modern kitchen apart from the equipment, which needs translating.
- The freezing-potThis is a pewter or tin canister set in a wooden pail packed with crushed ice and coarse salt, turned by hand. Any domestic ice cream machine replaces it. The half hour given is probably churning time only; both mixtures will need further time in the freezer to harden enough to unmould.
- Don't let the almonds oilThe orange-flower water is not only for flavour. Pounded dry, blanched almonds release their oil and turn to paste, and the custard goes greasy. Work in short bursts with a little of the flower water, or use a tablespoon of it with a spoonful of the cream.
- Custard temperatureThree yolks to a pint of cream is a thin custard. Stir over gentle heat to about 175-180F, until it coats the back of a spoon; past 185F it will curdle. Strain it before cooling to catch any almond grit and set egg.
- Loaf sugar and the egg whiteLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone; ordinary granulated is the equivalent. The beaten white is there to clarify the syrup in the old style, drawing scum to the surface to be skimmed. With modern sugar it is unnecessary, though harmless.
- Quantities in cupsOne pint of cream is 2 cups (Cassell's imperial pint is nearer 2.4 cups if you want to be exact); half a pound of loaf sugar is about 1 generous cup; three-quarters of an imperial pint of orange juice is about 1.75-1.9 cups, or six to eight juicing oranges. The rind should be pared thin with no white pith.
- The divided mouldA stiff piece of card cut to fit a loaf tin or pudding basin does exactly what the original asks. Fill one side, then the other, draw the card straight up, smooth the join, cover the surface with parchment and freeze solid before turning out.
- YieldA quart, as stated, which is six to eight small portions. The 4s. is the probable cost of the whole.
Cassell's belongs to the last generation of cookbooks written for households that made ice by hand, in a salt-and-ice pail, and stored it in an ice-safe or ice-house filled from the commercial ice trade. Moulded two-tone ices of this kind were a dinner-party set piece: the divided mould let one dish show a rich egg custard against a sharp water-ice. The orange-flower water is a survival from an older English tradition of distilled floral waters, used through the eighteenth century in creams and cakes. Almonds and citrus together are an old pairing in European sweet cookery, generally traced to Arab and Iberian confectionery, and the combination is likely to have reached English ices by way of the French and Italian confectioners prominent in the London trade from the eighteenth century onward.