Mary Randolph's Peach ice cream

Mary Randolph's Virginia Housewife, first published in 1824, included many ice cream recipes - peach, vanilla, coffee, chocolate, cocoa nut, iced jelly, strawberry, raspberries, lemonade iced, citron melon, almond and... oyster.

Citron MELON ice cream!  Other citron melon recipes HERE
Now, back to Randolph's recipes --

PEACH CREAM.
Get fine soft peaches perfectly ripe, peel them, take out the stones, and put them in a China bowl; sprinkle some sugar on, and chop them very small with a silver spoon—if the peaches be sufficiently ripe, they will become a smooth pulp; add as much cream or rich milk as you have peaches; put more sugar, and freeze it.

OBSERVATIONS ON ICE CREAMS.

IT is the practice with some indolent cooks, to set the freezer containing the cream, in a tub with ice and salt, and put it in the ice house; it will certainly freeze there; but not until the watery particles have subsided, and by the separation destroyed the cream. A freezer should be twelve or fourteen inches deep, and eight or ten wide. This facilitates the operation very much, by giving a larger surface for the ice to form, which it always does on the sides of the vessel; a silver spoon with a long handle should be provided for scraping the ice from the sides as soon as formed; and when the whole is congealed, pack it in moulds (which must be placed with care, lest they should not be upright,) in ice and salt, till sufficiently hard to retain the shape—they should not be turned out till the moment they are to be served. The freezing tub must be wide enough to leave a margin of four or five inches all around the freezer, when placed in the middle--which must be filled up with small lumps of ice mixed with salt—a larger tub would waste the ice. The freezer must be kept constantly in motion during the process, and ought to be made of pewter, which is less liable than tin to be worn in holes, and spoil the cream by admitting the salt water.

ICE CREAMS.

WHEN ice creams are not put into shapes, they should always be served in glasses with handles.

VANILLA CREAM.

Boil a Vanilla bean in a quart of rich milk, until it has imparted the flavour sufficiently—then take it out, and mix with the milk, eight eggs, yelks and whites beaten well; let it boil a little longer; make it very sweet, for much of the sugar is lost in the operation of freezing.

RASPBERRY CREAM.

Make a quart of rich boiled custard—when cold, pour it on a quart of ripe red raspberries; mash them in it, pass it through a sieve, sweeten, and freeze it.

STRAWBERRY CREAM

Is made in the same manner—the strawberries must be very ripe, and the stems picked out. If rich cream can be procured, it will be infinitely better— the custard is intended as a substitute, when cream cannot be had.

COCOA NUT CREAM.

TAKE the nut from its shell, pare it, and grate it very fine; mix it with a quart of cream, sweeten, and freeze it. If the nut be a small one, it will require one and a half to flavour a quart of cream.

CHOCOLATE CREAM.

Scrape a quarter of a pound of chocolate very fine, put it in a quart of milk, boil it till the chocolate is dissolved, stirring it continually—thicken with six eggs. A Vanilla bean boiled with the milk, will improve the flavour greatly.

OYSTER CREAM.

Make a rich soup, (see directions for oyster soup,) strain it from the oysters, and freeze it.

ICED JELLY.

Make calf’s foot jelly not very stiff, freeze it, and serve it in glasses.

CITRON CREAM.

Cut the finest citron melons when perfectly ripe - take out the seeds, and slice the nicest part into a China bowl in small pieces, that will lie conveniently; cover them with powdered sugar, and let them stand several hours—then drain off the syrup they have made, and add as much cream as it will give a strong flavour to, and freeze it. Pine apples may be used in the same way.

ALMOND CREAM.

Pour hot water on the almonds, and let them stand till the skins will slip off, then pound them fine, and mix them with cream: a pound of almonds in the shells, will be sufficient fora quart of cream—sweeten and freeze it. The kernels of the common black walnut, prepared in the same way, make an excellent cream.

LEMONADE ICED.

MAKE a quart of rich lemonade, whip the whites of six fresh eggs to a strong froth—mix them well with the lemonade, and freeze it. The juice of morello cherries, or of currants mixed with water and sugar, and prepared in the same way, make very delicate ices.

OYSTER SOUP.

Wash and drain two quarts of oysters, put them on with three quarts of water, three onions chopped up, two or three slices of lean ham, pepper and salt; boil it till reduced one-half, strain it through a sieve, return the liquid into the pot, put in one quart of fresh oysters, boil it till they are sufficiently done, and thicken the soup with four spoonsful of flour, two gills of rich cream, and the yelks of six new laid eggs beaten well; boil it a few minutes after the thickening is put in. Take care that it does not curdle, and that the flour is not in lumps; serve it up with the last oysters that were put in. If the flavour of thyme be agreeable, you may put in a little, but take care that it does not boil in it long enough to discolour the soup.

Past posts on peaches -- Peach Pickles (1774), Peach Houses and images of picking peaches HERE, a Peach Cobbler baked over the fire in a stewpan with a flaky crust HERE, and other peach recipes (including 1824 peach ice cream, peaches in brandy, spiced peaches HERE
 
©2017 Patricia Bixler Reber
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