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Glace Napolitain
Take 4 ounces of Carolina rice, wash it thoroughly, and put it in a stewpan with 1 pint of milk, 1 pint of good cream, a pinch of salt, and 2 ounces of sugar. Let the rice swell considerably in this. When it is tender enough to give way between the fingers, add 1 stick of good vanilla, and boil it one minute, then let it get cold. When cold, take all the cream that remains liquid, and put it in a stewpan with the yolks of 6 eggs; if there is not cream enough, add to it a little milk. Turns this on the fire with a wooden spoon, and when the eggs are well done, and the mixture very thick, let it cool. Add to this 1 pint of double whipped cream, and after mixing the cream with the custard, taste if the latter is sweet enough. Do not make it too sweet. Then take some out in a basin, and put it into the rice only, not into the freezing-pot; next mix together the rice and cream, take out the vanilla, and put all the rest into the freezing-pot; work it well in the ice. When quite frozen, put it in ice-moulds that shut on both sides; put them in the pail with salt all round the ice. At dinner time dip the moulds in cold water, push the ice off the moulds, and cover the gateau with the cream that you have put by in the basin.
A rice-pudding custard churned into ice cream and moulded — a Victorian glace that depends on cooking the rice to complete softness before the custard is ever made. Everything else is straightforward, but the sequence matters.
- Cook the rice past al denteThe rice must be soft enough to crush between finger and thumb, or the frozen grains turn to hard grit. Expect 30-40 minutes at a bare simmer in the milk and cream, stirred often so it does not catch.
- Carolina riceA long-grain American white rice, the standard table rice of the period. Any long-grain white rice works; avoid parboiled or converted rice, which resists breaking down.
- A stick of vanillaOne whole vanilla bean, added at the end and later fished out. Split it lengthwise to get more from it, or substitute about 2 teaspoons of extract stirred in after the custard has cooled.
- The custard temperature"When the eggs are well done, and the mixture very thick" corresponds roughly to 175-180F on a modern thermometer, stirred constantly over low heat; much past 185F the yolks scramble, and straining will only partly rescue it.
- Double whipped creamWhipping cream, whipped to soft peaks and folded in. Modern heavy cream at about 36 percent fat is thinner than the period's double cream, but it is the usual substitute.
- The reserved creamSet aside some of the finished custard-and-cream mixture before freezing; the recipe's closing line has it poured over the turned-out mould at the table. The wording about putting it "into the rice only, not into the freezing-pot" is ambiguous in the original.
- Freezing-pot and pailA metal pot set in a pail of crushed ice and rock salt and worked by hand. A modern ice cream machine does the same work; churn until it holds a soft-serve consistency, then pack into moulds or a loaf tin and firm up in the freezer for at least four hours.
- Unmoulding and yieldDipping the mould in cold water for a few seconds loosens it; a hot cloth works faster. The quantities give roughly 2 quarts, enough for 10 to 12 servings.