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Biscuit, Tortoni
Carefully break six fresh eggs, place the yolks in a copper basin, add two ounces granulated sugar and a teaspoon vanilla essence; place the basin on a corner of the range and briskly whisk it up for ten minutes; remove from the range to a table and whisk up for five minutes, then set the basin on the ice and briskly stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly cold. Then add two tablespoons maraschino, one ounce crushed macaroons and a half pint vanilla whipped cream; gently mix with a skimmer for one minute, then divide the preparation into six round paper cases, giving dome shapes. Evenly sprinkle two ounces finely crushed macaroons over them, arrange the cases in the freezer, cover and let freeze for two hours. Remove, dress on a cold dish with a folded napkin and serve.
A frozen sabayon-based mousse that needs no churning, which is why it survived in restaurant kitchens long after ice cream making moved to machines. The whole dish depends on cooking the yolk foam correctly and then chilling it hard before the cream goes in.
- The hinge: a sabayon, not scrambled eggs"A corner of the range" means gentle, indirect heat -- set the bowl over barely simmering water and never let it touch the surface. Whisk constantly until the foam thickens and holds a ribbon; if it stiffens around the edges or smells of cooked egg, it has gone too far.
- Egg safetyWhisking yolks over gentle heat may not bring them to 160F/71C, and the original gives no temperature. Use a thermometer and hold the foam at 160F, or use pasteurized eggs, since nothing after this step gets hot again.
- Copper basinUnlined copper conducts evenly, which suits a yolk foam over gentle heat, but any heatproof stainless or glass bowl works. Avoid aluminium with acidic liqueur -- it can discolour the mixture.
- Weights and volumesTwo ounces granulated sugar is about 1/4 cup; one ounce crushed macaroons roughly 1/4 cup of crumbs, and the two ounces sprinkled on top about 1/2 cup. "A half pint vanilla whipped cream" is one cup, and the original does not say whether that is measured before or after whipping -- take it as one cup of cream whipped, which yields roughly two cups of foam.
- MacaroonsThese are the dry almond macaroons of the amaretti family, not coconut macaroons. Italian amaretti or ratafia biscuits crushed to coarse crumbs give the right bitter-almond note; coconut will taste wrong and stay chewy when frozen.
- MaraschinoReal maraschino liqueur, distilled from Marasca cherries and their stones -- Luxardo or similar. The syrup from a jar of bright red cocktail cherries is a different product entirely and will only add sugar.
- "Set the basin on the ice"Cool the sabayon over an ice bath, stirring, until it is genuinely cold before folding in the cream. Warm foam will deflate the cream and the finished mousse will freeze grainy.
- SkimmerThis recipe folds with a skimmer, a flat perforated tool. A large silicone spatula does the same job -- fold just until no white streaks remain.
- Freezing and serving"The freezer" here is likely an ice-and-salt packed cabinet or ice cave rather than a mechanical one, though the text does not say. A modern freezer at 0F will set six small cases firm in two to three hours; cover them so the surface does not dry. Serves six, and they are best eaten within a day or two before the macaroon crumbs soften.
Biscuit Tortoni takes its name from the Cafe Tortoni on the boulevard des Italiens in Paris, run in the early nineteenth century by an Italian, usually named as Giuseppe Tortoni, whose ices made the house famous among the boulevard crowd. "Biscuit" in this context is often explained as pointing to the crushed almond macaroons rather than to any baking, though "biscuit glace" was also used simply for moulded still-frozen mousses. The dessert is a still-frozen mousse, set in paper cases without churning. The folded napkin on a cold dish is dining-room presentation of the period.