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Milanese Ice Cream
Beat up the yolks of two eggs with a pint of cream, and half a pound of finely-sifted sugar; add the mixture to two ounces of Naples biscuits reduced to powder in half a pint of milk. Put all into a bright stewpan, and stir until the mixture is as thick as an ordinary custard, when it may be strained through a sieve. Add a glass of sherry wine when frozen, and then put it into a mould. Probable cost, 2s. per quart. Time, a few minutes to boil the custard. Sufficient for seven or eight persons.
A cooked egg custard enriched with powdered sponge biscuit, churned and then moulded. The measurements are imperial, and the biscuit is the one ingredient you will have to substitute.
- Imperial measuresA British pint here is 20 fl oz, so the pint of cream is 2 1/2 US cups and the half pint of milk is 1 1/4 cups. Half a pound of sifted sugar is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons; it is a sweet mixture by modern taste.
- Naples biscuitsDry, finger-shaped sponge biscuits, close kin to today's savoiardi or ladyfingers. Two ounces, crushed to a powder, is roughly four to five ladyfingers; they act as a starch thickener as much as a flavouring.
- A bright stewpanProbably a tinned copper pan, kept well scoured. Use any heavy-bottomed nonreactive saucepan, and keep the heat low.
- How thick is "an ordinary custard"Coats the back of a spoon, about 170-175F. Two yolks in that much dairy is a thin custard, so the sponge crumb does much of the work; do not push it past a bare simmer or the eggs will curdle before it thickens.
- Strain, then chillThe recipe strains but says nothing about cooling. Chill the custard thoroughly, ideally overnight, before churning; a warm mixture freezes coarse.
- FreezingAn ice-cream machine replaces the pail of ice and salt. Churn until the texture of soft-serve, which is the point at which the wine goes in.
- Why the sherry goes in lastAlcohol depresses the freezing point, so adding it at the start gives a softer mixture that is slower to set. A 'glass' is probably around 2 fl oz; much more and the moulded cream will stay slack.
- MouldingPack the churned cream into a chilled mould, cover, and firm it in the freezer for several hours. Dip the mould briefly in warm water to turn out. Serves seven or eight, as stated.
Naples biscuits were a fixture of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English kitchens, used as the base for trifles, charlottes and puddings as much as eaten with wine; recipes like this one treat them as a pantry staple in the way a modern cook treats cornflour. The "Milanese" label reflects the general English habit of giving Italian names to ices rather than any documented Milanese original. The stated cost, 2s. per quart, appears under the "Probable cost" heading that Cassell's carries throughout the work: cream, a half pound of refined sugar and a glass of sherry were all things a careful housekeeper would account for.