Vanilla ice cream

I love trying new things in the kitchen. My latest experiments have been with ice cream. So far, I have made vanilla, banana, melon, strawberry and orange ice cream. This weekend I will try my hand with the chocolate one. All of them have turned out quite good: velvety, creamy, delicious!

History

Ice cream has a long and rich history. The Mexica people first enjoyed vanilla in their drinks and foods. Ice cream, first invented during the Mongol empire, was brought by the Arabs to Spain. After that, many peoples and nations influenced this classic dessert. Italians and French were among those who contributed. It then got the form we know today. Even Thomas Jefferson brought to America his own recipe of vanilla ice cream probably from France.

An old recipe

The way that ice cream was made hundreds of years ago isn’t that different from today. We do it in a similar way now. The difference is that we have modern kitchen appliances and machines that make our life easier. Take, for example, this recipe from The Delmonico Cookbook from 1889. Aside from the churning apparatus, which he calls the ice-cream freezer, pictured below, the ingredients are the same.

Vanilla Ice-cream

Boil in a saucepan one pint of milk with half a vanilla-bean. Put half a pound of powdered sugar and six egg yolks in a vessel. Mix thoroughly with a spatula for ten minutes. Then add it to the boiling milk, stirring for two minutes longer. Pour the whole into a copper basin and place it on a moderate stove to heat for five minutes. Stir at the bottom continually with the spatula and be careful not to let it boil. Remove from off the fire and place it on a table. Add quickly one pint of sweet cream, still mixing it for two minutes more. Let it cool off for thirty minutes. Then strain through a sieve into an ice-cream freezer. Put on the lid and lay it in an ice-cream tub. Fill the freezer all around with broken ice, slightly mixed with rock-salt. Then turn the handle on the cover as briskly as possible for three minutes. Lift up the lid. Use a wooden spoon to detach the cream from all around the freezer. Do the same for the bottom. Re-cover it. Turn the handle sharply for three minutes more. Uncover it, and detach the cream the same as before. Be careful that no ice or salt drops in. Put the lid on, and repeat the same three times more. The ice-cream should by this time be quite firm. Prepare a cold dessert-dish with a folded napkin. Dress the ice-cream over it and send it to the table.

The Delmonico Cookbook by Alessandro Filippini

You may want to try the modern version. This way, you won’t be fighting with buckets, ice, and rock salt. I am in love with it and highly recommend!