'Gunter's Tea Shop' was Negri's 'Pot and Pineapple' founded in 1757 at Berkeley Sq., London ... ice cream recipes in 6 cookbooks

Incredibly, six confectioners who worked at the Berkeley Square shop wrote cookbooks - Nutt, Jarrin, and lesser known Jeanes, Abbott, Barnes and William Gunter (son of the owner James). 

In 1757, famed confectioner Domenico Negri opened the 'Pot and Pineapple' at 7 Berkeley Square.  By 1784 James Gunter (1731-1819) became a partner and by 1799, as sole owner renamed it 'Gunter's Tea Shop'. 

Negri early trade card from c1760s

Robert Gunter (1783-1852) took over the shop when his father James died in 1819 and it remained in operation for over 100 years.

The 6 cookbooks were -

1) Abbot, Robert.  The Housekeeper’s Valuable Present.    Printed for author c1790   100p

2) Gunter, William.   Gunter’s Confectioner’s Oracle… being a companion to Dr. Kitchiner’s Cook’s Oracle.  London: 1830  238p
3) Hobbs, Samuel.  The Kitchen Oracle.  London: c1886  541p

4) Jarrin, William (Guglielmo - his Italian birth name). The Italian Confectioner, Or, Complete Economy of Desserts. London: 1820  280p

5) Jeanes, William.  Gunter's Modern Confectioner.  London: 1861, 1870 3d ed  246p  ills.;  1875 ed. with William Gunter
6) Nutt, Frederick. The Complete Confectioner.  London: 1789   1807 261p

Although the later authors would stress their more modern recipes, the recipes and tools were often similar.  All the authors used the old style "freezing pots" (sorbotierre).  I picked one flavor (coffee ice cream) which most of the authors had a recipe.

What the authors wrote about their connection to Gunter's on their title pages -

Frederick Nutt (1789) put on the title page of various editions from 1789 to 1807: "by a person late apprentice to..." ..."The result of many years experience with the celebrated Negri and Witten." ... "the most Celebrated confectioners in the World."  1789

Robert Abbott (c1790) "Late Apprentice to Messrs Negri & Gunter, Confectioners, in Berkeley Square."   "During the course of my apprenticeship with Messrs. Negri and Gunter, in Berkeley Square, many housekeepers to noblemen and gentlemen, on special occasions, were frequently present, in order to observe our peculiar method of preparing confets. Since I left Messrs. NEGRI and GUNTER..."  

Guglielmo Jarrin (1820; William 1784-1848) was born in Italy, moved up to France under Napoleon and by 1817 ended up in London where he worked as an "Ornamental Confectioner, at Messrs. Gunther, in Berkeley Square."  Jeanes wrote 40 years later: "Jarrin (who was formerly employed at our establishment) wrote the Italian Confectioner in 1820. Some of the recipes given in his work were those formerly used by us, but they have since been remodelled or supplanted by fresh ones, to suit modern tastes.  first picture of freezing pot and ice cream molds. 

William Gunter (1830) was one of James' sons and wrote Gunter's Confectioner's Oracle in 1830.    

William Jeanes    (1861) "Chief Confectioner at Messrs. Gunter’s, Confectioner to Her Majesty.  Berkeley Square." 

Samuel Hobbs (1886) "late chef to Messrs. Gunter & Co., Berkeley Square"

Freezing pots

1789  Nutt

put it into the freezing pot and cover it; put the freezing pot into a pail, and some ice all round the pot; throw a good deal of salt on the ice in the pail, turning the pot round for ten minutes; then open your pot, and scrape it from the sides, cover it up again, and keep turning it for some time, till your cream is like butter, and as thick; put it in your moulds, put them into a pail, and cover it with ice and salt for three quarters of an hour, till you find the water is come to the top of the pail; do not be sparing of salt, for if you do not use enough it will not freeze: dip your mould into water, and turn it put on your plate to send to table.

1790 Abbot
Freezing of Ice
Have ready a freezing pot in ice and salt; put in your ice cream, cover the pot, keep turning it till the water comes round the pot; then open it and scrape it down: continue turning it, and scraping it down as it freezes, till it becomes quite hard and smooth.

If an ice cream is mixed too rich, put in a little more cream: if it is poor, put in some more jam. If a water ice is mixed too rich, it will require some more water: if it is too poor, put in some clarified sugar.

If an ice is poor, the first time you scrape it down, it will feel quite rough and hard: on the contrary, if an ice is too rich, it will not freeze at all.

1827 Jarrin
Ices are composed of the juice of fruits, creams, and of liqueurs, prepared and congealed by means of pounded ice, mixed with salt, or with salt nitre, or soda. The freezing pot should be always of pewter, because it prevents the contents of the vessel from congealing too quickly, and there is time enough to mix them thoroughly ; for on this circumstance, in a great measure, depends the excellence of the ice. Tin vessels occasion too rapid a congelation, and do not afford time to well mix the materials. Some are of opinion, that when any article is iced, it loses its sweetness, and that it ought therefore to have an additional quantity of sugar; but this is not correct; the diminution of the sweetness arises from the materials not being properly mixed or worked with the spaddle, when in the freezing pot. In ices that are badly mixed the sugar sinks to the bottom, and they have necessarily a sharp unpleasant taste. Another very general defect in ices is their appearing full of lumps; they are also often of a disagreeable, dirty, red colour; and there are few houses in London where ices are to be found entirely free from these faults.

To make ices, you must have a tub, or pail, in which you place your freezing pot in the midst of pounded ice well mixed with salt; the mixing of the salt with the ice must be particularly attended to, as upon this circumstance depends the freezing power, and consequently in a great measure the goodness of the ice. The freezing pots being set in the middle of the ice up to the covers (See Plate II. Fig. 9.); put into them the articles you intend to ice, which must be made agreeable to the palate without being too sweet, as it is very easy to add a little syrup if necessary; keep turning the pots quickly round about in the ice, by means of the handles at top, till the cream is set, opening them every three minutes, and with a copper spaddle take the contents from the edges, mixing and stirring the whole well together; continue to do this till your ice is completed, and do not spare your labour, for on this part of the operation, as is said before, very much depends; then cover your pot with fresh ice, mixed with salt, and let it remain till wanted to be served up.

 

1830  Gunter
The Vessel.     Mix salt and ice well together in a vessel, and place your freezing pot in the midst: put into the last your juice, or cream, &c. and stir it about well: put on the cover of the vessel, and keep the ice-pot moving quickly round, by means of transverse handles; taking off the cover continually to stir up the contents of the freezingpot. Serve it up; or if not immediately wanted, put ice on the cover of the freezing pot.

1870  Jeanes

Freezing-tub. You must provide yourself with this pail or tub; it should be a little, but not much, deeper than the pots, so that they may be surrounded with Ice when placed in it. See that the tub is provided with a hole near the bottom, fitted with a bung, which can be removed at will, to release the water melted from the Ice.

Get also some Pewter Pots, of various sizes (see Figure 24, Plate VI.) ; they should be Pewter, and not tin, as the former metal prevents the contents freezing quickly into lumps, and consequently allows time for mixing the ingredients well together. Next, you will require Moulds of various shapes…they must be made of pewter, like the pots, and of different sizes. A Spaddle or Spatula is requisite; it is generally made of stout copper, tinned, the blade three and a half or four inches long, by about three in width, round at the end, and with a socket to receive the wooden handle, which, besides being more convenient to hold, is a good non-conductor to the heat of the hand; this is used for mixing the cream in the pot, and for scraping it from the sides as it freezes. A Wooden Trough, or Strong Box, and a Mallet, are also useful for breaking the Ice. If you have a goodsized Mortar and Pestle, these will do as well.

                       

Pound as much Ice as you know your freezing-tub will hold when containing the pewter pots, and well mix a lot of salt into it. Ice of itself will not congeal to the required consistence without help; salt is used to assist it, and the more salt you add to the ice, the quicker the creams are frozen. As a general rule, two pounds of salt will be sufficient for six pounds of ice. The ice should be broken small, that it may lie close to the pot, and freeze its contents. Set your freezing-pot exactly in the middle of the ice, taking care that it is clean, and the cover kept on until the ingredients are put in. The rough ice and salt should come to within an inch of the top of the freezing-pot.

When the ingredients are ready, remove the cover carefully, that no salt or ice gets in; with a clean cloth wrapped round the hand gently wipe out the pot, then put in your ingredients. Place paper over the top, close the cover down, and turn the pot or pots quickly round in the ice for five minutes, taking hold of the handles at the top. Now remove the cover, scrape all the ice from the sides, and work it well with the back of the spaddle against the side of the pot, until the whole is as smooth as butter. Put the cover on again for three or four minutes, turn the pot briskly round in the ice; uncover, and stir up the whole, scraping off and mixing in with the rest, as before. Turn and scrape the freezing-pot alternately, until the Cream has thoroughly set (to about the consistence of butter), and the Iceing is completed.

If you wish to produce satisfactory Ices, considerable labour and attention must be bestowed on them. They must be thoroughly mixed and stirred, in order to prevent lumps. See that they are of a good colour. Iceing does not destroy sweetness; mix well up, and if there was sufficient syrup at first, the cream will be sweet enough. The sugar sometimes gets at the bottom, and the ice has a tart taste. Too much syrup prevents the Ice from freezing properly, and too little causes it to freeze hard, and feel short and crisp, like frozen snow. Watch the first coat formed on the sides of the pot, when you commence freezing, and you will soon see if the ingredients are in proper proportion. When finished, cover the pot with fresh ice mixed with salt, and when wanted serve up. Two, three, and sometimes more, freezing-pots may be in the Icetub at one time; but you must be exceedingly active to attend to them all properly.

Coffee Ice Creams

1789  Nutt
COFFEE ICE CREAM. Take one ounce of coffee whole, and put it in a stewpan with one pint of cream; put it over the fire, and let it simmer and boil ten minutes or a quarter of an hour; drain all the coffee from it; break four eggs into a pan, and add one gill and a half of syrup; beat them well up together, put the cream that comes from the coffee into it; give it a boil, stir it all the time, pass it through a sieve, and freeze it.

1790  Abbot
Coffee Ice.

To four whites of eggs, put three ounces of sugar, three quarters of a pint of cream, and an ounce of whole coffee; boil it all till it thickens, then pass it through a sieve for freezing.

1827 Jarrin
White Coffee Ice Cream.

To a pint of cream, prepared as in No. 276, without any flavour, add four ounces of Mocha coffee roasted; while your coffee is roasting, put the prepared cream into a vessel with a cover, and throw in your coffee befries hot; cover it up, and put a napkin over it to prevent any evaporation; leave it for an hour, then strain it through a sieve, and you will have a white cream with a delicious flavour of coffee; sweeten it as directed above, and when cold pour it into the freezing pot to ice. You may likewise make it with a strong infusion of coffee, but then it will take the colour of coffee.

No. 276.—Custard for Ices. Take a pint of good fresh cream, and mix it slowly in a small copper pan with eight yolks of eggs, which must be quite fresh; cut a very thin slice of lemon peel, just the surface of the rind of a lemon, and put it in the cream; put your pan on a slow fire, and stir the cream constantly with a whisk, taking care not to let it boil, for it will turn to curds; this you will easily perceive, as it then begins to form small lumps; you will know when it is done enough by the cream becoming of a thicker consistence, and instead of turning round the pan, it at once stops; then immediately take it from the fire, add to it six ounces of pounded sugar, more or less, according to taste; strain it through a sieve over a basin, and give it what flavour you choose. In case of necessity you may use half milk and half cream, by adding the yolks of two more eggs, but it is better with new cream and fewer eggs.

1830 Gunter
Coffee Ice-cream

Is made by throwing into the cream the coffee-berries, roasted and hot, and then placing a cover over the vessel in which is the cream.  It must be strained two hours afterwards.

Coffee is seldom infused like Tea.

1861/1870 Jeanes
140. Coffee Ice Cream.

Prepare a pint of fresh Cream, as directed in No. 137 ; put it in a covered jug or pot; then roast (or you may purchase at a respectable shop) some Mocha Coffee (a quarter of a pound is enough for a pint of Cream); add the Coffee to the Cream, cover down tight, and let them stand for a short time in a warm place. The Coffee-berries must be put in whole. When the Cream has become tinctured with the Coffee, strain through a sieve. Sweeten with six ounces of sugar (see previous remarks on this), and when quite cold put it into the freezing-pot, and work until it is to the consistence of, and as smooth as, butter. Coffee Ice Cream made in this manner is very delicious. Some make it with ground Coffee, well strained, but the Cream has then a disagreeable brown colour. See that the Coffee is not over-roasted.

137. Custard Ices.

Beat up the yolks of seven or eight new-laid eggs, pour them into a copper pan; add a pint of good cream, and mix together gently. Take the extreme outside rind of a lemon, as thin as you can pare it, and one slice of the lemon; add them to the cream. Place the pan on the fire, and stir constantly with a wooden whisk. You must not let the cream boil, as it would then curdle and be spoilt. When it gets thick, and refuses to obey the motion of stirring, remove it from the fire, for it is dona It now requires to be sweetened; add half a pound of pounded sugar (or what suits your taste) and pass through a sieve. Sometimes half milk and half cream are used, when two or three extra eggs must be mixed in. You boil the milk and cream, and add the eggs and lemon. All new cream and less eggs, however, make the best custard. Flavour as you think necessary.

Negri print 1760s © The Trustees of the British Museum

©2019 Patricia Bixler Reber
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