No. 3556

La Grandina

Coat some oval-shaped plaited paper cases with a part of the following ice: Whip together one pint of raspberries, the peel of one orange and the juice of three, also the juice of six lemons; tint this a beautiful pale red and boil, adding enough sugar to make a twenty-two degree syrup; strain through a fine sieve and freeze. When consistent and smooth add to it half as much whipped cream and two ounces of finely cut-up citron peel; partly fill the inside of the cases with iced chocolate biscuit preparation flavored with vanilla, into which mix pounded macaroons and a few roasted and pulverized hazel-nuts; freeze for one hour, putting the cases in a freezing box and finish filling with the raspberry ice, having it slightly bomb-shaped on top; decorate with whole cherries placed directly in the center; dredge the top with finely shredded pistachios; return to the freezing box and freeze for one hour.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A composed frozen dessert from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen: a raspberry-citrus ice built around a core of frozen chocolate mousse, assembled in paper cases and hardened in stages. Almost none of its vocabulary survives, but the construction is straightforward once translated.

Twenty-two degree syrupThat is 22 degrees Baume, read on a saccharometer, and works out to roughly 40 percent sugar by weight - about 1 lb sugar to 1 1/2 pints of liquid. Ranhofer expected a hydrometer on the bench; without one, aim for that ratio and taste, since sugar level is what keeps the ice scoopable rather than a solid brick.
The freezing boxA box packed with cracked ice and rock salt, used for hardening moulded ices after churning. A domestic freezer at 0F does the same job. The two one-hour stages are hardening periods, not churning, and both are needed so the layers do not slump into each other.
Iced chocolate biscuit preparationBiscuit glace: a cooked egg-yolk-and-syrup base folded with whipped cream, frozen still, without churning. Ranhofer's chocolate version flavoured with vanilla means vanilla in support of the chocolate, not instead of it. It sets soft, which is the point - it should stay yielding against the firmer fruit ice.
Paper casesOval fluted paper cases, the ancestor of the modern petit-four or souffle case. They must be stiff enough to hold shape when lined with ice; parchment or foil bake cups are the closest current equivalent. Line them thinly, freeze the lining hard, then fill.
Tint this a beautiful pale redIn 1894 that would have meant carmine or cochineal, the standard red colouring of the period. A pint of raspberries in this much citrus juice will read more orange-pink than red, which is why the colouring is called for; a few tablespoons of reduced raspberry puree will deepen it without any dye.
Mind the citrusThe juice of six lemons and three oranges - roughly a cup and a half of juice - is a great deal of acid against one pint of berries. Do not skip the sugar adjustment, and strain properly: the orange peel is there for oil and perfume only and must not stay in.
Citron peelCandied citron, the thick-rinded Citrus medica sold in blocks for fruitcake, not lemon peel. Cut it very small; larger pieces freeze into hard nuggets that fight the ice.
Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no yield; the quantity would fill something like a dozen small oval cases. Serve straight from the freezer, cherry and pistachio side up, as one item among assorted ices.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and its ices section is the part that shows most clearly how a great restaurant of the period thought about dessert. Fancy ices were not scooped; they were built, moulded, and given proper names, often after a patron, a performer, or an occasion, which is very likely the case here - the name has no documented explanation, though grandine is Italian for hail and the granular pistachio-dredged top invites the comparison. What is certain is the technique: the layering of a churned fruit ice against a still-frozen biscuit glace, the paper case that let a delicate composition be plated without unmoulding, and the ice-and-salt freezing box that made all of it possible a full generation before mechanical refrigeration reached American kitchens. Recipes like this were the visible proof of a brigade large enough to keep several frozen preparations going at once.