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Bisque
One generous pint of milk, scalded, and pour on three wellbeaten eggs, and three-quarters of a cup of sugar; cook slightly. When cold, add one pint cream, one-quarter of a pound of stale macaroons rolled fine, and one teaspoon vanilla.. Freeze.
— Mrs. L. B. Honeyford
This is a frozen custard, not a soup: "bisque" in American ice-cream parlance meant an ice cream carrying crushed macaroons, nuts or cake crumbs. The recipe assumes you know how to run a churn and how far to take a custard.
- The hinge: cook the custard, but only just"Cook slightly" is usually read as bringing the milk-and-egg mixture to about 170-175F over low heat or a water bath, stirring constantly, until it coats a spoon. Much above that and the eggs begin to curdle, and straining will only partly rescue the base.
- Scalding and temperingScalded milk is heated to roughly 180F, just until it shivers at the edges. Pour it into the beaten eggs in a slow stream while whisking; dumping it in at once cooks the eggs on contact.
- "One generous pint"Read this as a full 2 cups plus a splash, perhaps 17-18 fl oz.
- MacaroonsIn American receipts of this period these are usually almond macaroons, crisp dry meringue-and-almond biscuits of the amaretti type, rather than the coconut macaroon or the French macaron, though coconut versions were also known. Four ounces of stale ones give roughly a cup of coarse crumbs. Amaretti crumbs stand in well; coconut macaroons will change the dish.
- Why staleDry biscuit holds some texture in the frozen custard. Fresh, soft macaroons dissolve into paste and the bisque loses its characteristic grit. Dry fresh ones in a low oven, around 300F, for 10-15 minutes if that is all you have.
- Chill thoroughly before freezingThe instruction "when cold" deserves more than a cool-down on the counter — refrigerate the custard several hours, ideally overnight, before adding the cream and vanilla. A cold base churns faster and finishes smoother.
- Freezing"Freeze" meant a hand-crank freezer packed with ice and coarse salt; ratios varied, commonly around three parts ice to one part salt by volume. In a modern machine, churn 20-30 minutes and harden two hours in the freezer. The original stirs the crumbs into the base, though folding them in during the last minute or two keeps them more distinct.
- Yield and seasoningAbout 1 1/2 quarts, serving eight to ten. A pinch of salt in the custard is worth adding; the original does not mention it.
Bisque ice cream appears in American cookbooks and on hotel and church-supper menus from the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth, listed beside Philadelphia ice cream and the various "mousses" and "puddings" made in the same crank freezer. The link to the soup name is folk tradition as much as documented etymology; by this period "bisque" had settled into a confectioner's meaning of a cream ice with pulverized macaroons or nut brittle stirred through. Stale macaroons were the sort of thing a household kept in a tin and needed a use for. The credit to a named contributor is typical of the community fundraising cookbook, which assumed any reader owned a freezer and knew how to pack it.