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Biscuits Glaces, Parisienne
Place six egg yolks in a copper basin, add two ounces granulated sugar and half bean vanilla. Set the basin on corner of the range and with a whisk beat up for ten minutes. Remove the basin from the range, take up the vanilla bean and beat for five minutes more; then set the basin on the ice, add six finely chopped candied marrons, six chopped candied cherries and one tablespoon of kirsch. Stir with the wooden spoon until thoroughly cold, then add a half pint whipped cream; mix for a minute, fill up six ice-cream paper cases with the preparation and neatly smooth the surface of each with the blade of a knife. Have a small freezer in an ice-cream tub with broken ice mixed with rock salt. Arrange the cases in the freezer and let freeze for two hours, remove, dress on a cold dish with a folded napkin over and serve.
A still-frozen bombe mixture — a warm egg-yolk sabayon lightened with whipped cream — rather than a churned ice cream. Nothing here needs an ice-cream machine; the aeration comes from the beating and the cream.
- The hinge: cook the yolks, don't scramble them"Corner of the range" means the coolest spot on a coal stove — gentle, indirect heat. Use a bowl over barely simmering water, whisking constantly, and take the yolks to 160°F/71°C, which both thickens them and settles any question about raw egg in an uncooked dessert.
- Copper basinA copper zabaglione bowl conducts evenly and its shape suits a whisk. Any wide stainless or glass bowl set over a pan of water works; avoid aluminium, which can grey an egg foam.
- Beating off the heatThe second five minutes of whisking is not optional padding — it cools the foam while holding the air in. A hand mixer will do it, and usually faster.
- Half a vanilla beanInfused whole and lifted out, so no seeds in the finished cream. A teaspoon of good extract stirred in after cooling is the practical substitute, though the flavour is flatter.
- Candied marronsMarrons glacés, candied chestnuts. Sold in jars in syrup or individually wrapped; they are expensive, and broken pieces (brisures) are sold cheaply for exactly this purpose. Drain them well or the mixture will loosen.
- Half pint whipped creamOne cup, whipped to soft peaks; the phrasing leaves it unclear whether the half pint is measured before or after whipping. Fold it in rather than stirring; "mix for a minute" was written for a cook who knew when to stop.
- Freezing without ice and saltThe ice-and-rock-salt tub is only a cold box here; nothing is churned. Set the filled cases on a tray in the coldest part of a domestic freezer for three to four hours, and cover them loosely once firm so they do not pick up freezer odours.
- Cases and servicePleated paper soufflé or ramekin cases of roughly 4 fl oz. The recipe finishes them on a cold dish with a folded napkin over; a chilled plate serves the same purpose today. Serves six.
Biscuit glacé is one of the standard forms of the classical French frozen repertoire: a bombe-style yolk-and-cream mixture frozen still, without churning, so that it can be cut or served in a mould rather than scooped. The name is confusing: biscuit is generally taken to refer to the shape and the pale, sponge-like texture of the finished block rather than to any baked component, and the form was commonly served in paper cases so each guest received a portion already boxed. The kirsch, the marrons glacés and the candied cherries suit it to winter, chestnuts being a Parisian autumn and Christmas staple. Its appearance in an American cook book of the period reflects how thoroughly Delmonico's-era restaurant cooking in New York took its vocabulary, and much of its dessert list, from Paris.