Sicilian Pudding

This is a bombe — a lined and filled frozen mold — from Ranhofer's The Epicurean, where cross-references to other numbered recipes do most of the work. The hinge is temperature control: everything must stay hard while you build, or the pistachio lining slumps into the chocolate filling.

• Work cold, in stagesChill the mold in the freezer, then press softened pistachio ice cream in an even layer, roughly half an inch, up the sides and refreeze until firm before adding any filling. Ranhofer's kitchen worked with salted ice rather than mechanical refrigeration; a modern freezer set to 0F does the same job if you let each layer set before the next.
• The Italian meringue"One Italian meringue egg-white" means the meringue made from a single white beaten with hot sugar syrup, folded into the chocolate ice cream to lighten it and keep it from freezing rock-solid. The hot syrup partly cooks the white, which reduces but does not wholly remove the raw-egg question; use pasteurised whites if that matters to you.
• Citron and orange peelCandied citron — the thick-rinded Citrus medica — is still sold at Christmas and in Italian groceries; candied orange peel substitutes for it acceptably. Buy whole slabs rather than chopped mixed peel so you can cut the matchsticks the recipe wants.
• Almonds"Slightly roasted" means pale gold, not brown; a moderate oven for a few minutes will do it, watching closely. Split whole almonds lengthwise into quarters so they read as slivers, not chunks, in the frozen mixture.
• Packing in salted iceThe original freezes and ripens the mold buried in crushed ice mixed with coarse salt; the recipe gives no proportions, though period practice ran to several parts ice to one of salt. A modern freezer at 0F will hold it, with less mess, though it will need longer than the hour and a half the text allows.
• UnmoldingDip the sealed mold in cold water for a few seconds, wipe it, and invert onto a chilled plate lined with a folded napkin — the napkin absorbs meltwater so the bombe does not slide. The "hour and a half later" refers to ripening time in the ice, not to standing at room temperature.
• Cinnamon and the jelly coreThe recipe asks only for "a little" cinnamon; keep it to a background note against the chocolate. The orange jelly center should be firmly set and cold before it is enclosed, or it will bleed.
• YieldA two-quart mold serves 10 to 12 as a dessert course. The brandied chocolate whipped cream sauce is passed separately, cold.