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Coffee Ice Cream (Make of a cup of filtered)
Make ¼ of a cup of filtered coffee, or, if you have no filter coffee pot, put in a fine strainer placed in a 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of fine ground coffee of boiling water. Pour the liquid bowl. Then pour through it ⅓ of a cup strain it through a fine cloth. Add through a second time, and if not clear strain it through a fine cloth. after , and make the ice cream after this clear liquid to the hot cream or custard, and make the ice cream coarsely ground coffee in 1 pint of either recipe. No. 2. Steep ¼ cup of coarsely ground coffee in 1 pint then of settle, and pour off carefully, then cream or milk 20 minutes. Remove it, let of the cream or custard. This is strain it and add it to the remainder sufficient for 1 quart of ice cream made according to either
The page has come through the scanner with its two columns interleaved, so the sentences collide mid-phrase. Read past the scramble and there are two straightforward methods: a strong filtered infusion added to the hot base, or coarsely ground coffee steeped directly in the dairy.
- Untangling the textMethod 1: make 1/4 cup of very strong filtered coffee by pouring 1/3 cup of boiling water through 2 heaping tablespoons of finely ground coffee held in a fine strainer set in a bowl, then pouring the liquid through the grounds a second time and through a fine cloth if it is not clear. Stir that clear liquid into the hot cream or custard. Method 2: steep 1/4 cup coarsely ground coffee in 1 pint of cream or milk for 20 minutes, let it settle, pour off and strain, then add it to the remainder of the cream or custard.
- YieldThe closing line tells you the flavouring is enough for 1 quart of ice cream made according to either of the book's base recipes; the page itself does not say what those two bases are.
- Strength of the infusion1/3 cup of boiling water through 2 heaping tablespoons of grounds, yielding about 1/4 cup, is roughly triple-strength coffee. That concentration is deliberate: freezing flattens aroma and dilutes flavour, so a base seasoned to taste warm will read as weak once frozen.
- Grind matters in each methodFine grind for the poured infusion, coarse for the steep. Coarse grounds in milk can be strained out cleanly and will not go bitter over 20 minutes; fine grounds steeped in dairy cloud the mixture and leave grit no cloth will fully catch.
- Straining through clothWhere the original says a fine cloth, use a double layer of muslin or a paper filter. Coffee oils and fines suspended in the base give the finished ice cream a muddy, chalky texture rather than more flavour.
- Steeping in dairy, not waterMilk extracts coffee more slowly than water and holds the aromatics well. Keep it below a simmer for the 20 minutes; boiling milk with grounds pulls out harsh, papery notes and risks scorching on the pan bottom.
- Chill before churningMethod 1 adds the coffee to a hot cream or custard, and Method 2 involves heated dairy as well. Cool the mix completely -- refrigerator cold, several hours or overnight -- before it goes into the machine. A warm mix churns to large ice crystals no matter how good the freezer.
- If the base is a custardCook the custard to about 175-180F so the egg thickens without curdling, then add the coffee.
Manuals like this one arranged their ice cream chapters in a consistent way: a set of neutral bases followed by dozens of interchangeable flavourings, each specified as sufficient for a quart. The two methods here reflect a real division in period practice flavouring with a concentrated brewed extract, or infusing the whole grounds in the dairy, the technique still used for coffee ice cream today. The instruction to strain twice and again through cloth is a reminder of how coarse pre-ground coffee was before paper filters became household equipment; the book's own hedge, "if you have no filter coffee pot," places it in the era when such a pot was still worth mentioning as optional.