No. 3436

Excelsior Biscuit

Biscuit Excelsior

Have ready a vanilla biscuit preparation (No. 3438), line a large biscuit case, the size being explained in the vanilla biscuit recipes; fill it half full with the preparation. Divide lady fingers lengthwise in two or three pieces the same length as the box; soak them in maraschino, then place in the cases over the first layer of preparation, filling with more of the same. Put them in a freezing box; freeze and ice over half their length with orange water ice (No. 3605), the other half with raspberry (No. 3607); in the center place a small size rose, molded in lemon ice (No. 3604), and on each side on the length place a lozenge of pistachio ice cream (No. 3454).

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For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

This is an assembly instruction rather than a standalone recipe: Ranhofer expects you to have four or five of his other numbered preparations already made and hard-frozen. Read it as a plating diagram for a biscuit glacé, and note that nothing here is churned.

What a "biscuit" is hereNot a baked biscuit at all. A biscuit glacé is a still-frozen mousse — egg yolks and sugar syrup whipped to a sabayon, cooled, and folded with whipped cream and often Italian meringue. Because it is aerated before freezing it sets smooth without a machine.
The vanilla biscuit preparation (No. 3438)You need this made and cold before you start. Any modern semifreddo or bombe base of the same type works: yolk-and-syrup sabayon plus softly whipped cream, vanilla only, no gelatine.
The biscuit caseRanhofer's "biscuit case" is a lined case or box; this page gives neither its shape nor its size, referring you instead to the vanilla biscuit recipes. A loaf pan of roughly 1.5 to 2 quarts, lined with plastic wrap or parchment with overhang for unmolding, will do the same job.
"Freezing box"A wooden pail or tin box packed with cracked ice and coarse salt, cold enough to freeze the mold and hold it hard; how cold depended on how much salt was used. A domestic freezer set to 0F will serve; allow several hours, or overnight, for a case this size to set through.
Lady fingers and maraschinoUse dry, crisp savoiardi, not soft sponge fingers, or the layer will dissolve. Ranhofer says to soak them; with modern fingers a brief dip of a few seconds a side is safer. Period maraschino was a liqueur distilled from marasca cherries and their pits, much less sweet than the red syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries; Luxardo or a similar kirsch-adjacent liqueur is the right flavor.
Alcohol and freezingThe maraschino in the biscuits and the sugar in the water ices both lower the freezing point. Keep the liqueur to what the biscuits absorb; a free pour will leave the middle of the loaf slushy no matter how long it sits.
The decorationThe orange and raspberry water ices, the lemon-ice rose and the pistachio lozenges are all applied to the already-frozen surface, so they must be worked quickly and the piece returned to the cold. Mold the rose and cut the lozenges in advance, freeze them hard, and set them in place at the last moment.
Serving and yieldRanhofer gives no yield here; a loaf of the size suggested above would give roughly 10 to 12 slices. Temper 10 to 15 minutes in the refrigerator before cutting, and use a knife dipped in hot water and wiped between slices so the ice decorations stay intact.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that house's repertoire, which is why the book reads as a system of cross-references rather than a set of self-contained recipes: the ice chapter alone runs to hundreds of numbered items that combine and recombine. Biscuit glacé came out of the French pastry and glacier trades, where "biscuit" is often said to have described the shape and paper case in which the frozen mousse was served, sliced like a cake rather than scooped. The name Excelsior is simply a fancy-dress title of the sort given freely to hotel ices in the period — the state motto of New York. The interest of the entry now is what it says about labor: a single case, yielding many slices, required a vanilla bombe base, three water ices, a pistachio ice cream, molded roses and cut lozenges, all held hard in salt and ice by a staff whose only job was the freezing room.