No. 3442

Roman Bomb

Bombe a la Romaine

Add twelve ounces of sugar to one quart of cream; strain it through a sieve, freeze and work it briskly, adding gradually two gills of rum stirred with two ounces of sugar; incorporate two Italian meringue egg-whites (No. 140). Coat a two quart bomb-shaped mold (Fig. 627) with pineapple ice cream (No. 3451), fill it with the above, then cover, and pack it for two hours in salted ice. Take the mold from the salted ice, remove all drippings, and unmold on a folded napkin, garnishing around with strawberry lady bouchees (No. 3376).

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For the Modern Kitchen

A two-quart bombe glacée from Delmonico's kitchen: a rum-and-meringue cream frozen inside a shell of pineapple ice cream. The cross-references make it look harder than it is, but the alcohol is the part that decides whether it works.

The hinge: rum and freezing pointTwo gills is one cup of rum, going into a base of one quart of cream plus the meringue, and alcohol depresses the freezing point sharply. Add it only after the cream is already partly frozen and churning, exactly as written, or the base may not set; if the result is too soft to hold in the mold, hold back a third of the rum next time and taste.
UnitsA gill is half a cup. Twelve ounces of sugar is by weight, about 1 3/4 cups granulated; the two ounces stirred into the rum is a scant 1/3 cup.
"Work it briskly"This is churning, not stirring. A modern ice cream machine does the job; the instruction survives from hand-cranked and paddle-worked freezers where the operator controlled the texture directly.
Italian meringue egg-whitesRanhofer's No. 140 is whites beaten while boiling sugar syrup is poured in, which cooks them and gives a stable foam. Two whites' worth of finished meringue is a bulky foam, well over a cup. Fold it in at the end, off the machine.
Lining the moldChill the bombe mold hard first, then spread the pineapple ice cream in an even half-inch layer up the sides with the back of a spoon, working fast and returning it to the freezer if it slackens. Fill the center only when the shell is firm.
Salted ice, and the modern substitutePacking means burying the sealed mold in roughly three parts crushed ice to one part rock salt, which holds well below 32F. A home freezer at 0F will do the job and avoids the brine seeping under the lid, though a solidly packed two-quart bombe may need longer than the two hours specified.
UnmoldingWipe the mold dry, dip it a few seconds in cold water, and turn it out. The folded napkin in the original absorbs meltwater at table as well as serving as conventional presentation.
YieldTwo quarts serves twelve to sixteen as a dessert course. The strawberry lady bouchees (No. 3376) are small cakes arranged around the base; any crisp small cake serves the same purpose.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its ices section is among the fullest accounts in English of the French frozen repertoire as it was served in a great restaurant. A bombe is generally understood to take its name from its spherical or shell-shaped mold, and the form suited service: a firm outer ice that could be sliced cleanly, hiding a softer, richer, often spirited center.