No. 3570

Basket Filled with Oranges

Panier Garni d'Oranges

The basket is of wicker furnished with an inside case; one of the handles must be trimmed with a ribbon. Fill the inside case with Andalusian ice cream (No. 3446) into which incorporate as much whipped cream (No. 50). Pare some oranges to the pulp, remove the white skin adhering to each section and marinate them in a little maraschino, sugar and kirsch; with these pieces of orange decorate the top of the cream and serve.

← No. 3569 Neapolitan Ice Cream Ices & Ice Creams No. 3571 Posilipo Oranges →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is an assembly, not a cooking recipe: a bought or made orange ice cream, lightened with whipped cream, packed into a lined basket and topped with liqueur-steeped orange segments. Ranhofer assumes you have his other numbered recipes to hand, so the work is in filling the gaps.

The basket and its "inside case"The wicker is purely presentation; the "inside case" is a liner -- presumably metal or porcelain -- that holds the ice cream and keeps the basket dry. Any freezer-safe bowl or loaf mould that sits inside a basket will do, and it should be chilled hard before filling.
Andalusian ice cream (No. 3446)A cross-reference to another of Ranhofer's numbered recipes, not reproduced here; the dish's title and orange garnish imply an orange-flavoured cream ice. Any good orange or blood-orange ice cream stands in without harming the dish.
Folding in whipped cream"As much whipped cream" probably points to a generous, roughly equal quantity, which turns the ice cream into something closer to a semifreddo: softer, paler, and easy to smooth into a mould. Fold it into ice cream that has been softened to a spreadable state, then refreeze at least four hours before serving.
Pare to the pulpThis is what is now called supreming: cut away peel and all white pith down to the flesh, then cut each segment free from its membrane. Working over a bowl catches the juice, which can go into the marinade.
The marinadeMaraschino and kirsch are both clear cherry-based liqueurs — maraschino sweet and floral, kirsch dry. A tablespoon of each with a teaspoon of sugar is enough for three or four oranges; half an hour is plenty, longer and the segments slump.
Alcohol and freezingDo not freeze the marinated oranges with the cream. Spirits depress the freezing point, and the wet segments will glaze the surface with ice; they go on at the last moment.
Serving and yieldThe original gives no quantities; scale the cream to the liner you are using. Bring it out at once -- the whipped cream makes it soft, and it will not survive long on a warm table.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's for more than thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a record of the restaurant's repertoire, and its ice cream chapter runs heavily to ways of making frozen cream look like something else -- baskets, fruits, flowers. The panier garni, or furnished basket, belongs to the tradition of the grand cold entremets, where the vessel counted for as much as its contents; the ribbon on the handle is part of the specification rather than an optional flourish -- the recipe says one handle "must" be trimmed. Maraschino and kirsch were both common in the professional pastry kitchen for macerating fruit.