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Date Ice-Cream
Make the usual foundation ice-cream, adding to it for each quart a cupful or more of shredded dates, then freeze. (Flavour as liked.)
This is a variation note rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes you already have the book's base custard and a working ice-cream freezer. The practical work is all in the dates and the churning.
- What "foundation ice-cream" meansThe book's own base recipe is not reproduced here. Period foundation recipes were either a cooked custard (scalded milk or cream thickened with egg yolks and sugar, chilled, then let down with more cream) or a plain Philadelphia base of cream, sugar and vanilla with no eggs. Either will carry the dates; the eggless base is less prone to curdling.
- Chill the base hard firstThe custard should be refrigerator-cold, ideally overnight, before it goes into the machine. A warm base churns into coarse ice crystals no matter how good the freezer.
- A quart is the finished volumeHow much is "each quart" -- The recipe does not say whether the quart is the unchurned mix or the finished yield; the mix is the likelier reading, since that is what the cook measures before freezing. A cupful of dates in a quart of base is generous; start at 3/4 cup if you want the fruit to read as an accent rather than the dominant texture.
- Shredding datesDates sold today, especially Medjool, are often moister and stickier than the dried, pressed dates common in the period. Pit them, cut into slivers with an oiled knife or scissors, and toss the pieces in a spoonful of sugar so they stay separate.
- Add the fruit lateDates stirred into the liquid base sink and clump. Fold them in during the last two or three minutes of churning, when the mixture is already thick, and they will stay suspended.
- Frozen dates go hardDate flesh sets firm and slightly chewy at freezer temperature. Softening the slivers in a tablespoon or two of warm water, rum or orange juice before folding them in keeps them pleasant to bite.
- Flavouring"Flavour as liked" is left entirely open. Vanilla is the obvious default, and sherry, brandy or rose water were all in period use. Dates take well to cinnamon, cardamom or a little strong coffee; keep it to about a teaspoon of extract or a tablespoon of spirit per quart, since alcohol softens the set.
- Freezing without a crank freezerAn electric machine handles this directly. Failing that, freeze the base in a shallow metal pan and beat it thoroughly every 30 minutes for about three hours. Either way, let the finished ice cream ripen in the freezer for two hours before serving.
- YieldA quart of base gives about 1 1/4 quarts churned with the dates in — six to eight servings.
Dates reached American kitchens as a dried import, sold pressed into blocks or boxed in long slabs, and by the turn of the twentieth century they were cheap enough to be treated as a general-purpose sweet fruit rather than a luxury. Dates and shredded coconut were both shelf-stable exotics a household could keep on hand year round, and they turn up paired in puddings, fillings and confections of the era. The recipe's brevity is itself a period marker: cookbooks of this kind established a "foundation" custard early on and then ran variations off it, on the assumption that any cook working an ice-and-salt freezer already knew the base by heart.