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Custard Ice Cream
Whisk together a quart of cream and five eggs with a little sugar. Boil it, stirring all the time, with the rind of two lemons cut fine. Strain it, stir till nearly cold, and freeze. This may also be served unfrozen as custard. Probable cost, 1s. 6d.
A plain boiled custard, lemon-scented, that doubles as a pouring sauce or a churned ice. The instructions assume a cook who already knows that "boil" means the gentlest possible heat when eggs are involved.
- Do not actually boil itFive whole eggs in a quart of cream will scramble at a rolling boil. Cook over low heat or a bain-marie, stirring constantly, until it coats the back of a spoon and reads 175-180F; the straining step in the original removes the lemon rind, and will also catch any bits that do curdle.
- The quartCassell's is a British book, so this is an imperial quart of 40 fl oz, about 1.2 US quarts or 1.1 litres. Scale the eggs down slightly if you work in US measure.
- "A little sugar"Genuinely unspecified. For a frozen custard, 5-6 oz (about 3/4 cup) per imperial quart is the working range; a pouring custard can take half that. Under-sweetened ice cream also freezes harder.
- Lemon rindPare the zest in strips with a peeler and leave the white pith behind, or the custard turns bitter. "Cut fine" means shredded thin so the oils release quickly; it is all strained out before freezing anyway.
- Cooling"Stir till nearly cold" prevents a skin and stops carryover cooking. Chilling the base thoroughly overnight before churning gives a smoother texture than the original method allows for.
- FreezingThe period method was a pot or pail packed in ice and coarse salt, the freezing mixture scraped and beaten as it set. A modern churn takes 20-30 minutes; without one, freeze in a shallow tray and beat hard every 30 minutes until set.
- YieldRoughly 1.5 litres once churned, depending on how much air it takes, serving eight to ten. Unfrozen, the same quantity is a custard sauce for a large tart or about twelve small cups.
- The cost note1s. 6d. is the compiler's estimate in Victorian money, given so a household could price a dish before committing the cream. It has no bearing on the cooking.
A boiled egg custard, flavoured, then frozen by agitation against a salted ice mixture. The same quart of cream and five eggs could be served as a custard or frozen, which is why the recipe offers both endings in a single line. Freezing at home was laborious before mechanical refrigeration; ice was cut in winter, packed in insulated ice houses or bought from a commercial dealer, and the salt-and-ice pail did the rest.