Balls
of ice cream encased in warm pie crust made by Jefferson's French chef were novel enough to stir
comment by TWO Congressmen attending a Presidential dinner. Among Jefferson's few handwritten recipes is one for
vanilla ice cream. A 1786 French book of ice creams, an early British cookbook with recipe - which he owned - ice cream freezer in his inventory, and more...Thomas Jefferson served some of the more creative ice creams at his dinners in the President’s House (White House). "Ice-cream very good, crust wholly dried, crumbled into thin flakes…” was served on February 6, 1802. Four days later another Congressman, Dr. Mitchill, wrote in a letter: “ice-creams were produced in the form of balls of the frozen material inclosed in covers of warm pastry, exhibiting a curious contrast, as if the ice had just been taken from the oven.”
Jefferson
had spent the years 1784-1789 in France, where an entire book of ice cream recipes
was published in 1786 - Emy’s L'Art de
bien faire les Glaces d 'Office. The
first time I saw the frontispiece filled with activity – getting the ice from
the icehouses, making the ice cream, going to serve the cups – I just had to
laugh at the delightful image, while sitting in the LC Rare Book room. Still do.
While
in France, Jefferson wrote down several recipes, and one was for ice cream
flavored with expensive vanilla. It called
for 2 of bottles cream, 6 egg yolks, ½ lb. sugar and a stick of vanilla to be
cooked over a fire, strained, poured
into a Sabottiere and set in a bucket of ice and salt.
After 7 minutes, turn the Sabottiere for 10 minutes, open and a spatula used to
loosen ice from the sides. Repeated several
times until the ice cream formed, then placed
in moulds and pounded down solid. The
mould was put back in the bucket and covered with ice. It was kept there until ready to serve, then immersed in warm water to
release from the side of the mold.
One
of his first tasks as President in 1801, was to send to Philadelphia for two
Frenchmen. His new chef, Honore Julien
had served George Washington the last four months of his Presidency, in Philadelphia. After eight years of making memorable meals
for President Jefferson in the new White House, Julien opened a confectionery and catering service in Washington City
which also offered ice cream.
Jefferson
lived in the three Capital cities – New York City from 1789 to 1790 as
Washington’s Secretary of State; and when the government moved to Philadelphia
for ten years, he continued as GW’s Sec of State, then Vice President under John
Adams. By the 1780s NYC had ice cream
sold in shops, and Philadelphia of the 1790s was filled with French exiles from
the revolutions in France and Haiti. The
Washingtons often served ice cream, and had an extensive china ice cream serving set.
British
cookbooks also contained ice cream recipes in the 18th century. Among Jefferson’s books was The Compleat Confectioner…
by Mary Eales. London: 1742, with instructions to make ice cream (recipe below) and
several creams including chocolate, almond, and sego. They were initially in Mrs. Mary Eales's
Receipts, Confectioner to her late Majesty Queen Anne, first printed in 1718.
Extremely
popular in Britain and America (where it was published in Alexandria, VA in
1804 and 1812), Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery contained an ice cream recipe with apricots. Martha Washington owned a
copy.
Jefferson had equipment to make and serve ice cream including an ice cream freezer and
moulds. The pictures of equipment are
from the Emy book, which came out in France while Jefferson was in France. The recipe written by Jefferson is from Library of Congress
online.
To
ice
Cream. Eales
TAKE
Tin Ice-Pots, fill them with any Sort of Cream you like, either plain or sweeten'd,
or Fruit in it; shut your Pots very close; to six Pots you must allow eighteen
or twenty Pound of Ice, breaking the Ice very small; there will be some great
Pieces, which lay at the Bottom and Top: You must have a Pail, and lay some
Straw at the Bottom; then lay in your Ice, and put in amongst it a Pound of Bay-Salt;
set in your Pots of Cream, and
lay Ice and Salt between every Pot, that they
may not touch; but the Ice must lie round them on every Side; lay a good deal
of Ice on the Top, cover the Pail with Straw, set it in a Cellar where no Sun
or Light comes, it will be froze in four Hours, but it may stand longer; than
take it out just as you use it; hold it in your Hand and it will flip out.
When
you would freeze any Sort of Fruit, either Cherries, Rasberries, Currants, or
Strawberries, fill your Tin-Pots with the Fruit, but as hollow as you can; put
to them Lemmonade, made with Spring - Water and Lemmon-Juice sweeten'd; put
enough in the Pots to make the Fruit hang together, and put them in Ice
as you do Cream.
©2014 Patricia Bixler Reber
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