Constance Pudding

A moulded ice-cream pudding from Ranhofer's Delmonico's repertoire, built like a bombe: a shell of one ice, a layered filling, then a hard freeze in the mould. Nothing in it is difficult, but almost every step assumes a nineteenth-century ice cave and a hand-cranked freezer.

• The hinge: everything must stay hardThe shell is lined, then filled, then frozen solid before unmoulding. Work with the mould buried in ice (or straight from a deep freezer), fill fast, and return it to the cold between stages. A softened lining slumps and the layers marble into each other.
• Vanilla sugar, No. 3165Ranhofer's vanilla sugar is sugar flavoured with vanilla bean, pounded and sifted together. Ten ounces to a quart of cream works out to roughly 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar — a generously sweetened, custard-free base, and sugar is what keeps a moulded ice from freezing to a brick. Plain sugar with a split bean scraped into the cream is a reasonable substitute.
• "Stir and freeze"This is a Philadelphia-style ice: no eggs, no cooking, simply sweetened cream churned. Modern churning in a machine takes 20-30 minutes; the texture will be leaner and icier than a custard ice cream, which is correct here — it has to hold a moulded shape.
• SalpiconA salpicon is fruit cut into small even dice, here apricots, cherries, plums and pineapple. Use fruit poached in syrup or good preserved fruit rather than fresh; fresh fruit freezes into hard, watery pebbles.
• MaraschinoThe original means maraschino liqueur, the clear Dalmatian marasca-cherry spirit, not the syrup from a jar of dyed cherries. Keep the amount modest — alcohol depresses the freezing point, and a heavily soaked filling will never set firm.
• Salted iceA mixture of crushed ice and coarse salt, roughly three parts ice to one of salt by volume, which holds well below 32F. A freezer set to 0F or lower does the same work; a domestic freezer at 10-15F is marginal for a two-quart mould.
• Sealing the mould"Force on the cover" meant a tight-fitting pewter or copper pudding mould, often sealed at the seam with butter or lard so brine could not creep in. With a modern mould, press plastic film onto the surface and wrap the whole thing before freezing.
• TimingAn hour and a half in salted ice is a hard freeze. In a domestic freezer allow at least six hours, preferably overnight, then dip the mould briefly in warm water to unmould and let the pudding stand a few minutes before serving.
• Yield and serviceA two-quart mould serves 12 to 16. The napkin under it is conventional service, and it also absorbs the meltwater that beads off a frozen mould on a cold platter.