May 26, 2010

Currant Ice Cream Recipe from 1819

It was so hot today that Andy and I happily made some homemade ice cream. We made two kinds: a currant ice cream made from a recipe from 1819 and a modern coconut ice cream that we plan to serve in miniature pie shells.

In the 1800s, ice cream was typically served at parties in the form of an intricate mold. These molds were frequently in the shape of vegetables and bouquets of flowers. There were tons of different flavors, most using fruit flavors and mixes of fruit flavors. Can you imagine digging into ice cream that was molded so perfectly? During the Regency period, ice cream was put into small, shallow glasses and licked out like modern day edible cones. Some period intricate molds can be seen here.  


Ingredients:
-1 pint pureed currants
-1 pint heavy cream
-1 cup powdered sugar

We decided to take a modern shortcut on "pass them through a sieve" and decided to put them in a blender. What happens when we take modern short cuts? It doesn't work. :D For some reason the currants would not blend. After prodding at them enough and trying to blend them for a while, we noticed we had crushed them to a pulp anyway and used them as they were.  

We mixed the currants, sugar and cream and put it into our modern ice cream maker which works exactly like an 1800s model in practice, the only difference is that the maker is not hand cranked but uses electricity--thank goodness you'd have to have a lot of willing helpers to hand crank that long!




We waited until the ice cream couldn't mix anymore and then poured the ice cream in a plastic container and put it in the freezer.




This was the end result. It doesn't look as good in the photo but it tastes very sweet and is similar in taste to raisins. Now tomorrow I will put scoops of this ice cream into little glass dishes and I shall sit on the patio and pretend I'm Jane Austen. I would recommend this recipe because it is very simple. It only has three ingredients and doesn't require you to cook anything. Who wants to cook when its so hot out? 

We came across a really good ice cream recipe from 1855 if anyone wants to begin to make ice cream. It is more detailed than most period directions and offers alternative flavorings.
 We also came across a few flavors that we weren't anxious to try:

I hope you all stay cool tomorrow, it is supposed to be another hot, lazy day. I encourage some period ice cream desserts to help prevent heat stroke. :D

10 comments:

  1. I thought you were going to say, "And tomorrow we're going to bring some to our dear friend." ;) Thanks, Jane! I hope you're coming tomorrow, but sadly, it will have to be at our usual time. I'm going to visit my mom in the hospital. Hope to see you at 7:30-ish?

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  2. That's okay. We are going to bring some for our dear friends--we just didn't want our other dear friends to feel left out. :D What are you still doing awake? It's midnight, only creeps and weirdos are still up.:D

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  3. Well...since I'm up and YOU'RE up, it's not ONLY creeps and weirdos now, is it?

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  4. YUm! Living in the 1800's sounds cool! Except for the hand-cranking part:D

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  5. Jodi, I included myself in the weirdos. :D

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  6. Milli, the hand cranking looks terrible but I guess that's really the only way you got it back then. It seems like it would be fun if you took turns cranking with all of your friends.

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  7. That sounds delicious. I'll have to see if my parents still have the old ice cream maker from when I was a kiddo.

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  8. Madeline, I hope you do. It really is good!

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  9. Hello Stephanie!

    Thank you so much for the lovely comments that you left on my blog! It was lovely to hear from you :) I piped the outline of the cookies with soft-peak royal icing, and with the rest of the icing I mixed in small amounts of water until it was quite runny. I then just filled the inside of the cookies with it, and being so watery it evened itself out quite nicely and dried very smooth. I'm sorry that I'm not very good at explaining it! :) You can see some instructions and pictures here: http://www.cakejournal.com/?s=flooding+cookies.

    I hope this is some help to you!
    With love,
    ~Laura

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  10. Looks delicious!! I wish we had an ice cream maker.

    God bless,
    ~Gianna

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