No. 3590

Bacchus

Bacchus represents wine and is the companion piece to the well, representing water. Molds can be purchased already made for these ices. Bacchus' barrel is of chocolate ice cream (No. 3449) and Bacchus is of virgin orange cream (No. 3459); the foot on which the barrel rests is of pistachio ice cream (No. 3454). Mold quite full, close forcibly, having it completely filled, and freeze for an hour and a half; unmold on a water socle as represented in Fig. 715, being careful to have this piece to correspond with the other as regards its proportions.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is an assembly instruction rather than a formula: three finished ice creams from elsewhere in the book are packed into a figural mold and frozen hard. Everything depends on the ices being made first and on the mold being filled without air pockets.

What you actually need to make firstChocolate ice cream for the barrel, pistachio for the base, and "virgin orange cream" for the figure of Bacchus himself. "Virgin" appears to denote a cream ice flavored with fresh orange rather than a yolk-rich cooked custard, which would make it paler and more delicate; check No. 3459 for what Ranhofer actually specifies.
The moldRanhofer is presumably referring to the hinged metal figure molds, generally pewter or tin, sold by confectioners' suppliers at the time; the recipe itself only says such molds "can be purchased already made." Antique examples still turn up, and modern figure molds will serve; a mold that clamps shut is what makes the "close forcibly" instruction possible.
Pack, do not pourThe hinge of the whole piece is filling completely. Work with the ices at a stiff, spreadable stage and press them into the mold with a small spatula, section by section, forcing out air. Any void becomes a crater on the finished figure's face when you unmold.
Freezing timeAn hour and a half assumes the sealed mold packed in cracked ice and coarse salt, which pulls heat out fast. A home freezer works more slowly and a mold of any size will likely need several hours; overnight does no harm.
UnmoldingDip the closed mold in cool, not warm, water for a few seconds, open the hinges, and turn the figure out onto its chilled socle. Warm water melts detail off the surface immediately.
The socleA socle is the pedestal the piece stands on — here a "water socle," i.e. one of ice. The recipe asks only that this piece correspond in proportion with its companion, the well. A shallow block of clear ice frozen in a loaf pan does the job.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's summary of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its long section of molded ices belongs to the tradition of the pièce montée — the sculptural centerpiece that announced a banquet's ambition before anyone tasted it. Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, astride his barrel is a stock figure of European confectionery iconography, and Ranhofer explicitly pairs him with a well representing water, so the two arrived as a matched set, companion pieces of corresponding proportion. That such molds could simply be "purchased already made" says a good deal about the period: by the 1890s New York supplied a professional trade in pewter ice molds deep enough that a chef need not sculpt such a figure himself.