No. 3571

Posilipo Oranges

Oranges Posilipo

Cut some three-inch in diameter oranges straight through the center; empty the insides entirely, scallop the edge of the peel with a machine (Fig. 654) and cut some uniform slits half an inch below this edge; run a ribbon through, tying it in a bow on one side. Have a spherical mold two and three-quarters inches in diameter and divided in three even hinged parts; fill one of these parts with strawberry ice cream (No. 3451), the other with vanilla ice cream (No. 3458) and the third with pistachio ice cream (No. 3454); equalize all these parts so that when the mold is closed there will be no more than just sufficient to fill them. Pack in ice and freeze for one hour; unmold and lay the pistachio side in the half orange; stick a piece of angelica in the top, it being run through a preserved cherry.

← No. 3570 Basket Filled with Oranges Ices & Ice Creams No. 3572 Seville Oranges, and Orange Macedoine Basket →

For the Modern Kitchen

An assembled dessert rather than a cooked one: the work is in the three ice creams (all cross-referenced elsewhere in Ranhofer) and in the moulding. Read it as a plating scheme.

The hinged sphereA three-part spherical mould 2¾ inches across holds roughly ¾ cup total, split into three wedges. Nothing like it is sold now; two hemisphere moulds, silicone half-sphere baking moulds, or even a well-chilled ice cream scoop packed in thirds will give the same effect. The point is a ball showing three colours in section.
"Pack in ice and freeze for one hour"This means burying the closed mould in a tub of crushed ice and coarse salt, which runs well below 32F. A modern freezer at 0F will do it, but allow three to four hours for the ball to set through, and chill the mould before filling.
Fill flush, not fullRanhofer's instruction to "equalize" the three parts is the hinge of the recipe. Overfill any wedge and the mould will not close cleanly, the colours smear, and the seams show when you unmould. Level each third with a small offset spatula and scrape the rim before shutting.
The scalloping machineFig. 654 is the scalloping tool illustrated in the book; the entry itself says no more than 'a machine'. A paring knife or a set of small round cutters gives the same scalloped edge; cut the slits for the ribbon with the tip of a knife, half an inch down, before the shell softens.
AngelicaCandied stems of Angelica archangelica, once a standard confectioner's green. Specialist suppliers still carry it; candied citron peel or a strip of candied lime peel stands in, with a brandied or maraschino cherry threaded on it.
The three ice creamsNos. 3451, 3454 and 3458 are Ranhofer's own strawberry, pistachio and vanilla ice creams, churned in a hand freezer, so they are dense and slow to melt. Any good strawberry, vanilla and pistachio will work; scoopable but not soft-serve is the texture you want for packing wedges.
UnmouldingDip the closed mould in cool water for a few seconds, open the hinges, and turn the ball out onto a chilled plate. Rest the pistachio face down in the orange shell so the green sits against the peel, then return the assembled oranges to the freezer until service.
Yield and serviceOne filled half-shell per person; an orange cut through the centre gives two. Prepared shells can be cut and ribboned hours ahead and kept in the freezer; fill only shortly before serving, as the shells go limp once they sweat.

A Little History

The name points to Posillipo, the headland on the north side of the Bay of Naples long associated with villas, sea views and citrus, and it belongs to a whole family of nineteenth-century composite ices named after places rather than flavours. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York and author of The Epicurean (1894), devoted dozens of numbered entries to this kind of work: ice cream forced into hinged pewter moulds, packed in salt and ice, and returned to table inside a fruit shell, a spun-sugar basket or a pastry case. The three colours here are the same red-white-green scheme that made spumone and Neapolitan brick ice cream popular, though the Italian association of that palette with the flag is usually offered as tradition rather than documented fact. What the entry really records is the labour available in a great restaurant kitchen of the 1890s, where scalloping orange peel with a crimping tool and tying a ribbon bow on each portion was a reasonable use of someone's afternoon.