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Neapolitan Ices
These are prepared by putting ices of various kinds and colours into a mould, known as a Neapolitan ice-box; when set they are turned out, and cut into slices suitable for serving. However small the pieces, the block should be cut so that each person gets a little of each kind. To do this, slice downwards first, then cut the slices through once or twice in the contrary direction. Four or five kinds are usually put in the mould, although three will do. The following will serve as a guide in arranging. First, vanilla cream; then raspberry or cherry or currant water; coffee or chocolate in the middle; then strawberry cream, with lemon or orange or pineapple water to finish. The boxes may be had in pewter or in tin. After filling the moulds imbed in ice in the usual way.
This is an assembly method rather than a formula: it assumes you already have several finished ices to hand. The whole thing hinges on temperature discipline, since each layer has to be firm enough to hold its shape but soft enough to spread without tearing the one below.
- "Cream" and "water" icesA cream ice is a custard- or cream-based ice cream; a water ice is what we would call a sorbet or granita base, fruit juice and sugar syrup with no dairy. The suggested order alternates the two, which would vary both the richness and the colour of the sliced block, though the recipe gives no reason for the arrangement and offers it only as a guide.
- The Neapolitan ice-boxA rectangular lidded metal mould, usually pewter or tin, designed to be buried in ice and salt. A loaf tin lined with plastic wrap or parchment, or a small terrine mould, does the same job; the corners just want to be square so the slices come out neatly.
- "Imbed in ice in the usual way"The sealed mould was packed in a pail of crushed ice, generally mixed with coarse salt; the recipe assumes the reader knows the proportions and gives neither a ratio nor a time. A domestic freezer at 0F/-18C replaces this entirely: allow several hours, and preferably overnight, for a block you intend to slice cleanly.
- Layering temperatureSpread each ice at the soft-scoopable stage, level it with an offset spatula, then freeze that layer firm — 20 to 30 minutes — before adding the next. Adding a soft layer onto a soft layer is what produces the muddy, bleeding joins.
- UnmouldingDip the mould briefly in warm water or wrap it in a hot cloth for a few seconds, then invert. A lining of parchment or plastic wrap left overhanging on two sides makes this trivial and avoids melting the outer surface.
- CuttingThe instruction to slice downwards first, then across, is the point of the dish: every portion shows all the layers in section. Warm the knife blade in hot water and wipe it between cuts. Let the block temper for five minutes so it cuts rather than shatters.
- Quantities and yieldThe original gives none. A standard 9 by 5 inch loaf tin holds about six cups of ice in total — roughly a cup and a half of each of four flavours — and yields 10 to 12 slices.
- Chocolate in the middleThe recipe puts "coffee or chocolate in the middle", so the dark ice is one option rather than a rule; the placement looks like an aesthetic choice rather than a technical requirement.
The name records a real association: Naples was, by the eighteenth century, famous across Europe for ices and for sorbetti. The layered block sliced to show its stripes was a formal dinner-party dish of the later nineteenth century, when ice was cheap enough to be bought by the block from an ice merchant and moulds like the pewter Neapolitan box were standard batterie de cuisine in a well-equipped house. However Cassell's frames the subject, it reads less as a single recipe than as a technique to be applied to whatever ices the cook already knows how to make, and the flavour list is offered explicitly as "a guide". The modern supermarket brick of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry is the surviving descendant, reduced to three layers and no water ices at all.