Siberian Punch—Lalla Rookh

Ranhofer's punches in this chapter are not drinks but semi-frozen desserts eaten with a spoon from a handled glass. Three components and one problem: alcohol will not freeze.

• Two gills of rumA gill is half a cup, so two gills is one cup of rum per quart of ice cream. That is enough alcohol to keep the mixture permanently slushy; it is meant to be, but if you want it to hold any shape at all, stir the rum in at the very end and serve immediately.
• "Worked in a freezer"The freezer here is an ice-and-salt bucket churn, and the ice cream is already frozen when the rum and meringue go in. In a modern machine, churn the vanilla base first, then fold in meringue and rum by hand in a chilled bowl rather than running the paddle, which will only warm and slacken it.
• Italian meringueRanhofer's No. 140 is egg whites whipped with hot sugar syrup poured in as a thread. Make it to a firm, glossy stage and let it cool completely before folding; warm meringue melts the base on contact. A quarter as much means by volume, roughly one cup of finished meringue per quart.
• Vanilla ice cream baseNo. 3458 is Ranhofer's own vanilla ice cream, and his ice creams generally run to an egg-yolk custard rather than a Philadelphia-style cream. A rich base with plenty of yolk stands up better to the dilution from rum and meringue than a lean one.
• Everything coldChill the glasses, the bowl and the spatula. The mixture has a very low freezing point and will collapse into liquid faster than you expect once assembled.
• ServingSmall handled punch glasses or cups, filled and served at once with a spoon, as a cold pause in the middle of a long dinner, before the roast or game. A quart of ice cream plus its additions fills roughly eight to ten such glasses.
• TimingThis does not keep. Held in the freezer overnight it separates and the rum sinks; make it within an hour of serving.