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Vanilla and Currant Bombe
Take equal quantities of vanilla cream ice and red currant water-ice. Line a bombe mould with currant water-ice an inch thick. Fill the center with vanilla cream ice, close the mould, and put it in ice till it is firmly set. Turn it out just before it is wanted, and cut into slices convenient for serving. Dish these on a napkin.
An assembly recipe rather than a cooking one: everything depends on the temperature of the two ices when you handle them, and on the mould being cold.
- "Put it in ice"In Victorian kitchens this meant burying the closed mould in a pail packed with crushed ice and coarse rock salt, sometimes sealed at the seam with butter. A domestic freezer at 0F does the same job; give the filled mould at least 4 hours, and overnight if it is a large one.
- The bombe mouldA hinged or lidded metal dome, typically copper or tinned steel, made in a range of sizes. A stainless mixing bowl of about 1.5 quarts, covered tightly with plastic wrap and then foil, works as a substitute.
- Lining an inch thickThe hinge of the whole dish. The water-ice must be soft enough to spread but firm enough to hold a wall; work it in a chilled bowl until it is the texture of thick sorbet, press it up the sides with the back of a cold spoon, then freeze the shell hard before adding the centre. Filling a soft shell makes the two ices bleed into each other.
- Cream ice versus water-ice"Cream ice" is what we call ice cream, generally a cooked custard base in this period; "water-ice" is a sorbet of fruit juice and sugar syrup, no dairy. Red currants are hard to find fresh outside high summer; frozen currants make a sound sorbet, and their high pectin and acid keep the texture firm.
- Turning it outDip the mould in cold water for a few seconds, not hot, and invert onto a chilled plate. Then return it to the freezer for 10 minutes to firm the surface before slicing, or the cut faces will smear.
- Dishing on a napkinA folded linen napkin on the serving dish absorbed meltwater and kept slices from sliding. It still does, and a chilled platter helps more.
- YieldA 1.5-quart bombe cuts into 8 to 10 slices. Cut with a long knife warmed in hot water and wiped dry between slices.
The bombe takes its name from its shape rather than any explosive quality: the original moulds were spherical or shell-shaped, and the form is generally traced to the elaborate French moulded ices of the early nineteenth century, when confectioners built layered domes in copper. By the time Cassell's was compiled, a bombe demanded an ice pail packed with salt and ice, and the labour to work it. The pairing here is a deliberate contrast of temperature and texture rather than of flavour alone: a lean, sharp fruit sorbet outside, a rich custard within. Red currants were a garden staple in Britain and appear throughout Victorian cookery in jellies, sauces and water-ices, their acidity and setting power making them useful.