This recipe is from the Queen of Ice-cream, Agnes B. Marshall’s Book of Ices, first published in 1885 and still available today in an updated version.
All her “cream ices” use one of four variations of custard, and she starts with a stern warning:
Never allow the custard to boil or it will curdle
Very Rich
- 2 and a half cups single cream
- half cup sugar
- 7 egg yolks
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 and a half cups whipped cream
Put the cream in a pan and let it come to the boil. Set aside and allow to cool slightly then pour it onto the sugar and yolks in a basin and mix well. Return it to the pan and keep stirring until it thickens and clings well to the spoon, but do not let it boil. Pass it through a tammy, hair sieve or strainer. Let it cool and add vanilla or other flavour and chill.
Ordinary
- 2 and a half cups milk, or half-and-half milk and single cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 7 egg yolks
Method as above.
Common
- 2 and a half cups milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs, well beaten
- 1 teaspoon powdered gelatine, soaked for 5 minutes in 50 ml/ 1/4 cup cold milk.
Put milk, sugar and eggs into a pan to nearly boiling. Remove from heat and stir in the gelatine. When gelatine is dissolved, pass it through the tammy, hair sieve or strainer. Flavour and chill.
Cheap
- 2 and a half cups milk
- 1 and a half cup sugar
- 2 and a half teaspoons cornflour or arrowroot
- Boil the cornflour or arrowroot with the milk. Finish as for the other custards.
I get the feeling from the way this is written in the book that Agnes didn’t think much of the cheap version and wouldn’t dream of using it – her instructions are brief to the point of brusque.
• Read more about Agnes B. Marshall here
Agnes was a great believer in adding alcohol to ice cream, so we used kirsch to complement the cherry.
For the recipe below Pork Belly used the “ordinary” custard.
Cherry & kirsch ice-cream
Ingredients
- For the custard
- 570 ml/ 2 1/2 cups milk or half-and-half milk and single cream
- 115 g/ 1/2 cup sugar
- 7 egg yolks
- For the ice-cream
- 450 g/ 1lb cherries
- 285 ml/ 1 1/4 cups) water
- 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
- 75 g 1/3 cup sugar
- juice of 1 1/2 lemons
- red food colouring
- 570 ml/ 2 1/2 cups custard
- 2 tablespoons kirsch
Instructions
- For the custard
- Put the milk (or milk and cream) in a pan and let it come to the boil.
- Set aside and allow to cool slightly then pour it onto the sugar and yolks in a basin and mix well.
- Return it to the pan and keep stirring until it thickens and clings well to the spoon, but do not let it boil.
- Pass it through a tammy, hair sieve or strainer. Let it cool in fridge overnight.
- For the ice-cream
- Stone the cherries, break the stones and take out the kernels.
- Cook the cherries and kernels for about 10 minutes in the water and sugar.
- Pound them (Agnes really didn’t like bits in her ice-cream!) and add the lemon juice and a little red food colouring.
- Pass through a tammy cloth or hair sieve and add to the custard and kirsch and freeze.
- If using a modern-day ice-cream maker churn time is about 25 minutes.
Other recipes you may like:
• Sorbet of raspberries
• Swiss Toffee
• Eliza Acton’s Plum Pudding