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Ices, or Glaces, and Sorbets
AT large dinners it is usually the custom to give the names of the ices-cream and water-on the menu; but they are often omitted from it, as they are served after the dessert has been put on the table, and therefore cannot be said to form part of the dinner.
Crème de thé - Tea cream ice. de thé vert-Green tea cream ice. de vanille-Vanilla cream ice. de ratafias-Ratafia cream ice. de pain bis-Brown bread cream ice. aux fleurs d'oranger-Cream ice with infusion of orange flowers.
Bavaroise-Bavarian cream ice. au caramel-Cream ice with caramel, flavoured with vanilla. à la Bisque-Cream ice with powdered macaroons, flavoured with madeira or sherry. à la Châteaubriand - Vanilla cream ice with whipped cream and strips of preserved fruits.
Crème à la Japonaise-Brown bread cream ice with almonds, flavoured with vanilla and maraschino.
The following can be cream or water ices- Crème, or eau, de café-Coffee cream or water ice. de chocolat-Chocolate cream or water ice. de noyau-Noyau cream or water ice. d'abricots-Apricot cream or water ice. de pêches-Peach cream or water ice. de fraises-Strawberry cream or water ice. de framboises-Raspberry cream or water ice. de framboises et groseilles-Raspberry and currant cream or water ice. de groseilles-Currant cream or water ice. de cassis-Black currant cream or water ice. de cerises-Cherry cream or water ice. de groseilles vertes-Green gooseberry cream or water ice. de raisins-Grape cream or water ice. d'ananas-Pineapple cream or water ice. de bananes-Banana cream or water ice. de rhubarbe-Rhubarb cream or water ice. de canneberges-Cranberry cream or water ice. de citron-Lemon cream or water ice. d'oranges-Orange cream or water ice. d'amandes-Almond cream or water ice. de pistaches-Pistachio nut cream or water ice. de tutti-frutti-Maraschino cream or water ice, with pistachios, and dried fruit cut in small pieces. de marrons-Chestnut cream or water ice.
Crème, or eau, de gingembre-Ginger cream or water ice.
Panachée-Ices of two or more different colours and flavourings.
In addition to these there are- Eau de ponche-Punch water ice. de melon-Melon water ice. de grenade-Pomegranate water ice. d'épine-vinette--Berberry water ice. de mille fruits-Mixed fruit water ice. de canelle-Cinnamon water ice.
Glaces Napolitaines--Neapolitan ices, served in paper cases.
Fruits variés-ices made in the form and colour of a variety of fruits, one of which is served to each person.
If orange ice is made of Chinese oranges it is called de Chinois; if of Tangerine oranges, de Tangerines. Muscat grape ice is called de Muscat.
For water ices fresh fruit is necessary, as preserved fruit can only be used for cream ices.
Sorbets are half frozen water ices with wine or liqueur. They are served in glasses either before or after the remove at a large dinner.
Ponche à la Romaine is Roman punch-a lemon water ice with whipped whites of eggs and rum. à la Régence is made with the addition of champagne and Martinique or Arrack. à la Norfolk is made of Seville oranges with brandy or rum.
Ponche à la Cardinal is made of Seville oranges with champagne, and is coloured red. à la Russe is made of lemons, with green tea and Kümmel.
Granito Romaine is made with coffee.
Sorbet à la Saint-Charles is a cherry water ice flavoured with cherry brandy. à la Provençale is a lemon water ice with whipped whites of eggs and shreds of candied fruit and almonds, flavoured with ginger and vanilla. à la Grecque is an orange ice with maraschino and ginger brandy, and small pieces of ginger and preserved fruits. à l'Américaine is an orange and lemon ice with champagne. à la Victoria is flavoured with liqueur, and is coloured pink. à la Cannes is made of tomatoes, apples, and apricot jam, with preserved ginger, rum and noyau.
Besides these there are the Sorbets au champagne, au Kirsch, etc., and those made of fruit-aux fraises, à l'orange, à l'ananas, aux pêches, etc. For Sorbet à l'Impériale, the lower half of the glasses contains pineapple ice with rum, the upper half strawberry ice with champagne.
The page opens with a rule that governs everything after it: these are either cream ices or water ices, and the choice decides what fruit you can use.
- Fresh fruit for water ices, preserved for creamThe last line of the fruit list is the most practical sentence in the chapter: preserved fruit will do for a cream ice but not for a water ice. A cream ice carries dullness, a water ice exposes it, which is as true with a modern machine as it was with a pail of ice and salt.
- Sorbets came in the middle of dinnerHalf-frozen water ices with wine or liqueur, served in glasses before or after the remove. The page treats a sorbet as a pause inside a long meal rather than as a pudding, which is the opposite of where a modern reader expects to meet one.
- Brown bread ice really is breadCrème de pain bis appears twice in the book and it is exactly what it says: brown breadcrumbs, toasted and steeped in the cream. It is one of the few things on this page that is both easy and entirely unavailable to buy, and it tastes of malt and caramel rather than of bread.
- Half the flavours come from a drinks cupboardRatafia, noyau, maraschino, curaçao, kümmel, arrack, Martinique rum, madeira, sherry. Several of these ices have no fruit in them at all; the flavour was bought by the bottle, and a modern cook who leaves out the liqueur is left with sweetened cream.
- Épine-vinette is barberryAlong with pomegranate, cranberry and green gooseberry, it belongs to a group of sharp, barely sweet fruits used for water ices. Dried barberries are sold in Iranian and Middle Eastern shops and still give the sourness the name was promising.
- The moulded fruits need a hard freezeFruits variés, ices shaped and coloured as individual fruits, one to each guest, were frozen in metal moulds packed in ice and salt. A domestic machine makes a softer mixture that will not hold a shape without a long hardening in the coldest part of the freezer.
The first paragraph is the most interesting thing on this page, and it is about paperwork rather than food. Ices, it says, are usually named on the card at a large dinner, but are often left off, because they are served after the dessert has already been put on the table and therefore cannot be said to form part of the dinner at all. That one sentence tells you what a menu card was understood to be: not a record of what the guests ate, but a formal account of the meal proper, with a boundary that the ices fell outside. It also tells you that ices arrived at the end of an evening in which ice itself had been bought, stored, broken up and worked with salt by someone for hours, and that the result was treated as an extra.