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Pineapple Ice
2 cans of pineapple. 2 pounds of sugar. 2 quarts of water 6 or 8 whites of eggs.
Strain the juice from the cans into the freezer. Make a boiling syrup of the sugar and 1 quart of water and throw in the pieces of pineapple previously cut in large dice. Let boil a few minutes and then strain the flavored syrup also into the freezer. Add the other quart of water and freeze. Strew some sugar over the pieces of pineapple and set them on ice. When the syrup is nearly frozen add some red fruit juice or coloring to make it rose pink, and the whipped whites, beat and freeze again. Throw the pieces of pineapple on top, cover down and let remain till time to serve, then mix them in. The canned pineapple is generally riper and sweeter than the fresh fruit that is sent to Northern markets. When the latter is used it should be cut up, have hot syrup poured over and allowed to steep till cold. Two cans contain about 1 1/2 pounds of pineapple. The juice of 1 or 2 lemons is sometimes added to a pineapple ice when the fruit is very sweet.
A confectioner's water ice from the era of the hand-crank freezer, thickened at the end with a large quantity of raw egg white. That last step is the problem, and it cannot be worked around by adjusting the method.
- Why the cautionSix to eight raw whites are whipped into the part-frozen ice and never brought to any temperature at all. Freezing does not kill Salmonella; it simply holds it dormant until the ice softens on the plate. Use a current recipe if you want a meringue-lightened ice.
- Holding it in the freezerThe recipe compounds the risk by having the finished ice sit "till time to serve" with the sugared pineapple on top; the holding time is unstated, and a salt-and-ice packed ice held that way sits at only just below freezing.
- "The freezer"Not an appliance. This is the pewter or tin can of a hand-cranked freezer set in a wooden bucket of cracked ice and coarse salt, which is why the recipe can speak of straining liquids directly into it.
- Two cans of pineappleThe author tells you himself: about 1 1/2 lb of fruit, plus the packing juice. Two modern 20 oz cans are close enough in drained fruit weight; if the fruit is very sweet, the optional lemon juice the recipe mentions earns its place.
- Sugar loadTwo pounds of sugar to two quarts of water plus canned syrup is a deliberately high-Brix mixture. Sugar depresses the freezing point, so this was meant to freeze soft and scoopable in a salt-and-ice bath rather than set hard.
- "Red fruit juice or coloring"Period pastry kitchens used cochineal or a reduced currant or raspberry juice to tint ices rose. The colour is cosmetic and has nothing to do with the pineapple flavour.
- Fresh versus cannedThe recipe says only to cut up fresh pineapple, pour hot syrup over and steep till cold; the stated concern is that such fruit is less ripe and less sweet. Heat would also destroy bromelain, the protease in raw pineapple that attacks egg and dairy protein, though the author does not say so.
- YieldRoughly three quarts of frozen mixture before the fruit pieces go in.
The American Pastry Cook belongs to the professional trade literature of the late nineteenth century, written for those running hotel and restaurant pastry departments rather than for home cooks, which is consistent with quantities given in pounds and quarts. Water ices "a la" every fruit in the larder were a fixture of the multi-course American hotel dinner, served either as a dessert or as a palate cleanser midway through the meal. The author's aside about canned pineapple being riper and sweeter than the fresh fruit reaching Northern markets reflects the era's shipping realities: fruit sent north had to travel unripe, while canners could pack closer to ripeness. The whipped whites folded in at the end lighten the texture and increase the volume, a technique that has since been superseded for good reason.