Home › Cookery › Ice Cream and Frozen Custard

Ice Cream and Frozen Custard

After having tried many new and patent freezers, some of the best housekeepers have come to the conclusion that the old-fashioned freezer is the best. It is well, however, to keep a patent freezer on hand, in case of your wanting ice cream on short notice; but for common use an old-fashioned one is the best, especially as servants are so apt to get a patent freezer out or order. The great secret of freezing cream quickly in a common freezer is to have the cream and salt in readiness before breaking the ice into small pieces the size of a walnut. There must be a space of two inches between the freezer and the tub in which it is set. Put a little ice and salt under the bottom of the freezer, then pack alternate layers of ice and salt several inches higher than the cream is in the freezer. If there is no top to the tub, with an aperture to admit the freezer, pin a woolen cloth over it and turn the freezer rapidly. When the cream begins to harden on the sides of the freezer, cut it down with a knife, scrape from the sides, and beat with a large iron spoon. Then cover again, and turn rapidly till it is as hard as mush. When the ice begins to melt, drain off the salt and water, adding more salt and ice, which must be kept above the level of the cream in the freezer. When done, tie large news-papers over the tub and freezer. Put a woollen cloth or blanket over these, and set the cream in a dark, cool closet till wanted. In this way it may be kept for hours in summer, and for days in winter, and will grow harder instead of melting. As cream can be kept thus, it is well to make it early in the day and set it aside, leaving more leisure for other preparations that are better made immediately before dinner.

Ice cream making, like other branches of housekeeping, is much facilitated by having all the ingredients at hand before beginning on it. As such explicit directions for the process are given in the subsequent pages, it is unnecessary for me to add anything further on the subject. Unless you have pure cream to freeze, it is better to make plain boiled custard rather than to attempt an imitation of ice cream.

It is a good plan to make jelly and custard at the same time, so that the yolks of eggs not used in the jelly may be utilized in custard either boiled or baked. The same proportions are generally used for boiled and baked custard. Instead of flavoring with extract of vanilla, it is much better to boil a vanilla bean in the milk, or to boil some peach leaves tied up in a piece of muslin (six or eight leaves to a quart of milk), or to flavor it with burnt sugar. Never flavor custard with extract of lemon, when you can obtain fresh lemons for the purpose.

When you have no yolks left from making jelly, boil a quart of milk (flavored by the above directions). Have ready three eggs, whites and yolks beaten together to a stiff froth, and into these stir a teacup of powdered white sugar. Dip up the boiling milk, pour slowly on the eggs, stirring rapidly. When all the milk has been stirred in the eggs, wash out the kettle, put the milk and eggs back into it, and let the mixture boil till it begins to thicken, when it must be taken immediately from the fire, poured into a bowl, and stirred till cold and smooth.

Many persons, before freezing, stir in the frothed whites of three eggs. The same directions given for freezing cream apply to the freezing of custard. Boiled custard should never be used as a substitute for cream in making fruit ice creams, nor should it ever be eaten with jelly.