No. 3426

How to Cook the Cream for Ices

Maniere de Cuire les Cremes pour les Glaces

First boil the milk or cream. If with vanilla or white coffee infuse either of these into the milk or cream. Put the yolks or whites of eggs in a tinned basin of sufficient size not to have the mixture rise to over three-quarters of the height of the vessel; add sugar to the yolks or whites, beating it in well with a whisk; then add the boiling milk or cream. Set the basin on a slow fire or in a bain-marie; stir continuously with the spatula until the composition be of a sufficient thickness to cover this spatula, which will occur a few moments before it begins to boil; remove it from the fire or bain-marie and then strain through a Venice or plated copper wire sieve; stir occasionally while cooling and freeze when thoroughly cold. For cooked ice cream be careful to select only the freshest eggs and milk; the most important point to be observed in these creams is to have the eggs cooked, allowing them to proceed as far as possible without actually boiling, then pour quickly through a sieve and stir steadily until most of the heat is lost.

← No. 3425 Compositions Frozen by Machine Ices & Ice Creams No. 3427 How to Freeze by Hand in a Long Covered Free →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a master method rather than a fixed formula: Ranhofer expects you to bring your own quantities from whichever ice cream recipe sent you here. What he is describing is a stirred custard, and the whole entry turns on one instruction.

The hinge: stop before the boil"Sufficient thickness to cover the spatula" is the nappe stage, roughly 170-180F on an instant-read thermometer. Above about 185F the yolk proteins tighten and the custard scrambles; the sieve exists to catch the few threads that set anyway, not to rescue a broken batch.
Tinned basinA tin-lined bowl or pan, usually tinned copper, though tinned iron was also common; the tin keeps the eggs off the bare metal. Any heavy stainless or enamelled saucepan does the same job; avoid unlined aluminium, which can dull the colour of an egg custard.
Bain-marieA water bath, i.e. a bowl set over barely simmering water. Slower than direct heat but far more forgiving with a large quantity of yolks.
Venice sieveA fine sieve of woven hair or silk. A modern fine-mesh strainer or a chinois is the equivalent; if the custard curdled at the edges, strain through two layers of cheesecloth.
Yolks or whitesA whites-only version gives a paler, leaner base; the entry itself does not say which flavours it was meant for. Whites set at a lower temperature than yolks, so they need still closer watching and will never thicken as heavily.
"White coffee"Not coffee with milk. It means unroasted or very lightly roasted beans infused in the hot cream, which gives a pale, green-tea-ish coffee flavour without the colour. Green coffee beans are sold by home-roasting suppliers.
InfusingSplit a vanilla bean into the milk or cream, bring to a boil, then cover and let it stand off the heat 20-30 minutes before mixing into the eggs.
Freeze when thoroughly coldTake this literally: chill the strained custard at least four hours, or overnight. A base aged overnight churns smoother and holds less air-hole coarseness, and a warm base will simply melt the ice in a hand freezer or overload a machine's compressor.
Stir while coolingStirring during the cool-down stops a skin forming and moves heat out of the centre. Setting the bowl in ice water and stirring is the fastest version of what he asks.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's account of his thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is organised like a professional reference rather than a home cookbook: this entry is a cross-referenced method that individual ice recipes point back to, sitting between a note on machine-frozen compositions and instructions for freezing by hand. The stirred egg custard base it describes is the creme anglaise of French kitchen training, and its use as an ice cream foundation is what still separates so-called French or custard-style ice cream from the Philadelphia style made from cream and sugar alone. Ranhofer's insistence on the freshest eggs and milk, and on cooking the eggs "as far as possible without actually boiling," reflects the working habits of a kitchen in which the spatula coating test was the practical gauge at the pastry cook's disposal -- and it remains an accurate one.