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Plombiere's Ice
Blanch and peel six ounces of Jordan almonds and ten bitter ones. Dry them in a soft cloth, and pound to a smooth paste with a little orange-flower water. Stir this paste into a pint and a half of boiling milk, then press the liquid through a jelly-bag. Mix ten yolks of eggs, well beaten, with the milk, and stir the custard over a moderate fire until it begins to thicken. Take it off the fire, stir two or three minutes longer, and strain it once more through a tamis. When cold freeze it, and when it is ready for serving mould three rings of the iced cream, diminishing in size as they go up. Fill the centre with apricot jam, and serve. Time, about ten minutes to boil the custard. Sufficient for six or seven persons. Probable cost, 2s. 6d.
This is a Victorian almond custard ice, and the almond flavour comes from a source that is no longer permitted in food. The notes below explain the hazard first, then the vocabulary and technique for readers who want to understand the method.
- Bitter almonds are the problemBitter almonds contain amygdalin, which releases hydrogen cyanide when the nut is crushed and wetted — exactly what pounding to a paste with orange-flower water does. Raw bitter almonds cannot legally be sold for food in the United States and are restricted elsewhere; the dose in a single pounded batch is not predictable, and children are affected at far smaller amounts than adults.
- Freezing does not helpThe almond paste goes into boiling milk and the book allows about ten minutes for the custard, so some volatile cyanide will be driven off; but the process is uncontrolled, freezing removes nothing further, and the amount left in the finished ice cannot be predicted.
- If you want to make an almond iceUse a current recipe built on sweet almonds or a commercial almond extract, where the bitter-almond compounds have been removed under control. Do not attempt to scale down or substitute your way through the version above.
- Jordan almondsNot the sugared confection sold under that name today. In this period a Jordan almond was a large, flat, high-quality sweet almond, originally shipped from Málaga; the name is generally traced to a corruption of jardin rather than to the river.
- Tamis and jelly-bagA tamis is a fine drum sieve of woven horsehair or worsted; a jelly-bag is a conical cloth strainer. Both are doing the work of a fine-mesh sieve lined with muslin, which is what the double straining is for — pulling out almond solids and any threads of set egg.
- Orange-flower waterStill sold, usually in the baking or Middle Eastern aisle. Strength varies considerably between brands, so use a restrained hand.
- Moderate fire, and the real limitThe book says to stir over a moderate fire until it begins to thicken, though its time line speaks of boiling. By modern practice a ten-yolk custard on a pint and a half of milk wants the pan held below about 180F, with the extra two or three minutes' stirring done off the heat; past that the yolks scramble and no amount of sieving recovers the texture.
- Cost and yieldSix or seven servings, at a probable cost of 2s. 6d. — a substantial sum for a dessert, reflecting ten egg yolks and six ounces of imported Jordan almonds.
Plombières is a French ice of almond-flavoured custard, usually enriched and served with preserved fruit, and its name is traditionally linked to Plombières-les-Bains in the Vosges — though the connection is asserted more often than it is documented, and rival stories attach the dish to a Paris confectioner instead. By the time Cassell's compiled this entry the plombière seems to have become a familiar fixture of the English dinner table: a moulded, tiered ice with jam at the centre, the sort of thing a household with a pewter mould, an ice cave and a supply of ice could put up to close a formal meal. The almond base, made by pounding nuts to a paste and infusing them in hot milk, is far older than ice cream itself, descending from medieval almond-milk cookery; the routine addition of a few bitter almonds to sharpen the flavour recurs throughout period recipe books and only fell out of use as their toxicity became a matter of regulation rather than folklore.