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Biscuit Glace a la Vanilla
Twelve ounces of powdered sugar, 15 egg yolks, i quart of cream and I split vanilla bean, placed in a pan and beaten over a slow coal fire, or, still better, in a hot water bath, until it thickens, then strain through a coarse sieve. Put it back in the pan, set the pan in ice, or ice water, and beat until it becomes quite thick and firm. Then put in freezer and freeze. Next beat up i quart of double cream, sweeten same lightly with fine sugar and gently but thoroughly mix into the batch. Re-ice the can and let stand. Another and still simpler method is as follows: Beat up i quart of good double cream, sweetened as in the foregoing formula. Ice up a can and put in 5 pints of French vanilla ice cream, paddle it up thoroughly in order to get it smooth, then work in the previously beaten sweet cream.
A soda-fountain confectioner's frozen custard, enriched at the end with whipped cream. The typography is rough: every stray lowercase "i" in the original is the numeral 1.
- The hinge: cook the custard gentlyFifteen yolks to a quart of cream will scramble the moment the mixture gets ahead of you, which is why the text prefers a hot water bath to direct coal heat. Take it to about 175-180F, when it coats a spoon and holds a drawn line, then strain and chill at once over ice as directed.
- Powdered sugarAt this period the term generally meant sugar ground finer than granulated, and probably without the cornstarch found in modern confectioners' sugar; use superfine (caster) sugar instead for both the custard and the whipped cream. Twelve ounces is about 1 3/4 cups.
- Double creamThe American trade term for the richest cream available at the time, roughly equivalent to today's heavy whipping cream at 36-40% fat. British double cream at 48% will whip stiffer and faster than the recipe expects.
- "Put in freezer and freeze"The freezer here is a hand-cranked can set in a bucket of cracked ice and rock salt, not a compartment in a refrigerator. A domestic ice-cream machine does the same job; churn the custard to a soft-frozen state before folding in the whipped cream.
- Re-icing the canAfter the whipped cream goes in, the mixture is soft and airy and is meant to firm up undisturbed, not be churned further. In a home kitchen, transfer to a chilled container and harden in the freezer for at least four hours.
- Fold, do not stirThe whipped cream supplies most of the aeration in the dish. "Gently but thoroughly" means folding; beating it in collapses the volume and you end up with plain rich ice cream.
- The shortcut versionFive pints of "French vanilla ice cream" means egg-yolk custard ice cream, the trade's standing distinction from Philadelphia-style, which has no eggs. Softening it and paddling in a quart of sweetened whipped cream is the same result by a shorter road.
- YieldThe full formula gives roughly 3 quarts, enough for 16-20 servings. Halving it is straightforward, and 7 or 8 yolks to a pint of cream keeps the proportions right.
- Vanilla beanSplit the bean, scrape the seeds into the cream and drop the pod in as well; the coarse sieve at the end catches the pod and any strands of set egg. One bean per quart is a light hand by modern standards if your beans are dry.
Biscuit glacés is a French confectioner's term, and the "biscuit" is often said to refer to the shape rather than to any baking: the frozen mixture was traditionally moulded into small bricks or set in fluted paper cases, cut into oblongs like a biscuit or a slice of sponge. What sets it apart from ice cream proper is the whipped cream folded in after freezing, which gives it a light, mousse-like body that holds its shape when sliced. Its appearance in an American soda-fountain manual is a good marker of how freely such books borrowed from French professional confectionery. The alternative method at the end, which starts from five pints of French vanilla ice cream, is the honest note in the entry.