No. 3453

Peach Ice Cream a la Herbster

Creme aux Peches a la Herbster

Prepare a peach ice cream with two-thirds of cream and one-third of fruit pulp, adding three drops of extract of almonds; color slightly to a very pale pink and with this cream when frozen coat a pudding mold. Have some ripe peaches already peeled, stoned and cut in quarters; mince them finely and macerate in a little kirsch. Mix into the remainder of the peach ice cream half as much whipped cream (No. 50) and an equal quantity of the minced peaches; fill the mold quickly, freeze and unmold one hour later.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a molded bombe: a shell of pale pink peach ice cream lining a chilled mold, filled with a lighter peach mousse studded with kirsch-macerated fruit. The hinge is temperature control — the shell must be firm enough to hold its shape but the filling soft enough to pour, and both have to happen before either melts.

ProportionsTwo-thirds cream to one-third peach pulp by volume is the whole base as Ranhofer states it; he mentions no eggs and no cooking, and no sugar either, so sweetening is left to the cook. For about 1 quart, use 2 2/3 cups heavy cream (or cream with some milk) sweetened to taste — roughly 3/4 cup sugar is a reasonable starting point — and 1 1/3 cups peach purée. Peaches vary wildly in sugar, so taste the mix before freezing: it should be noticeably sweeter than you want, since cold mutes sweetness.
Extract of almondsAlmond extract of the period would have been bitter-almond based. Peach and almond are botanical cousins, and a trace of that flavour tends to read as more peach — a plausible reason for the three drops here. Modern almond extract carries the same flavor compound (benzaldehyde) and three or four drops in a quart is right. More turns it into marzipan.
ColoringThe original leaves the colouring agent unnamed; cochineal or a vegetable coloring would have been the likely period choices. A very pale pink is the intent; a drop of beet juice or a raspberry purée will do it without changing the flavor much.
"No. 50"That cross-reference is simply sweetened whipped cream. Whip to soft peaks, not stiff — stiff cream folds in as lumps and freezes grainy.
Lining the moldChill a 1 1/2-quart pudding mold or metal bowl in the freezer, then spread the frozen ice cream up the sides in a layer about half an inch thick, working fast with an offset spatula. Return it to the freezer to set hard before filling. Ranhofer's cooks did this over an ice-and-salt bath; a freezer is easier and less messy.
Kirsch and freezingKirsch depresses the freezing point, so keep the maceration brief and drain the peaches before folding them in, or the center will never set firm. A tablespoon or two of kirsch for a cup of minced fruit is plenty.
Timing"Freeze and unmold one hour later" assumes a salt-ice packing that works fast and holds the bombe at serving temperature. In a home freezer allow at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, then dip the mold briefly in warm water and invert onto a chilled plate.
YieldA 1 1/2-quart bombe serves 8 to 10. Cut with a knife dipped in hot water.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for most of three decades, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his working archive — some 3,500 numbered entries, cross-referenced like an encyclopedia, which is why this one sends you to "No. 50" for whipped cream rather than repeating it. Molded ice creams of this kind, a firm shell enclosing a softer mousse, were the standard grand-restaurant dessert of the era: they could be built in advance, held in a salt-and-ice cave, and unmolded to order, which mattered when a banquet ran to a dozen courses. The "a la Herbster" tag follows the period habit of naming a dish for a patron, a colleague or a passing celebrity; Ranhofer rarely explained these, and most of the names have lost whoever they honored. The almond extract is not a flourish but sound practice — peaches and almonds are both Prunus species, and a trace of bitter-almond flavor reads on the palate as more peach, a trick still used in commercial peach flavorings.