ICES.

ICES. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN AND KIND. Not so many years ago an ice pudding was looked upon as a triumph of culinary art, that even the average good professed cook would as soon have thought of trying to make, as of trying to fly; whilst the ordinary ices, served on plates at ball suppers, etc., came as a matter of course from the con fectioner's. Now, however, thanks to various im provements in freezers, ice caves, etc., ice-making has become less of a secret, and very few really good cooks would confess to being ignorant of its preparation; whilst almost every house-mistress intent on a smart dinner would insist on an iced entremet of some kind, even if she did not also have ices at dessert as well. Both ice and snow have been used for cooling food, both liquid and solid, for centuries, but the ice, as we understand it, has not been known for more than three centuries at the outside, In France, at B ICES. all events, such ices did not become at all well known till the reign of Louis XIV., when a Florentine, Procopio by name, introduced them into Paris some where about 1660, though probably in Italy they were in existence earlier; at all events the half frozen ice of snow-like consistency, known to this day in Italy as a “granito,” was common enough even then. The “sorbet,” or semi-fluid ice strongly flavoured with alcohol, which has in modern days succeeded to the position formerly held by punch, is said to be the lineal descendant of the “sherbet,” so dear to the Oriental, even in the days of the Crusades. Sherbet then was a mixture of more or less sweetened fruit juice or pulp, acidulated with lemon juice and chilled with snow. Presumably early in their connection with India, the British merchants appear to have adopted the sherbet, only adding to it a modicum of spirit of some kind; whence its name was changed from sherbet to punch, said to be derived from a Sanscrit word meaning five, having reference to the five elements that entered into its composition; these five parts were water, spice, sugar, spirit, and lemon juice, for the pleasant acid obtained from the tamarind or the lemon were then preferred to other fruits, probably because the Europeans dropped the custom of chilling their sherbet, using hot water instead of the refrigerants (and thereby incidentally in great measure destroying its wholesomeness), especially when it made its way to Northern climes, where it was received with effusion as a hot drink, specially suited to the cold, humid atmosphere of the Northern winter. We all ORIGIN AND KIND. know the old French proverb that teaches us that Fashion is a revolving wheel; and this holds true of punch, which was again transformed into a frozen mixture, though the spirit prevented its setting as much as the ordinary ice. It began as a lemon water ice, flavoured with various kinds of spirit to taste, from whence it took its name, and gradually all kinds of fruit water ice replaced the original lemon water. Of ices there are a great variety; for instance, the ordinary cream and water ices, the iced pudding, the plombière, the bombe, the fromage, the iced soufflé, the mousse, the moscovite, the charlotte glacée, etc.; which all denote variety, though truly but little real difference in their composition. Of these, further particulars will be given later. It may, however, be mentioned that the plombière and the fromage are now rather out of date; the bombe, in its original form, being also old-fashioned, though its name is still seen on menus. Originally it was introduced by Francatelli, it is said, and was then made in the shape of a shell or bomb, the flame that is emitted by a live shell, being reproduced in spun sugar. This grim reminiscence of war declined in favour after the Crimean campaign; now, though the name still remains, the shape is altered, as will be seen by Fig. 1, and almost all tall conical moulds are called by this name nowadays. The plombière derived its name from the metal of which the mould was made originally, namely lead (plomb), and the term was applied rather indiscriminately to the mould and to the pail or sorbetière in which the ice B 2 ICES. was made. The fromage, or cheese, was a plain mould divided internally by strips of metal, allowing of differently coloured and flavoured ices being slipped in, the strips being then removed, the whole lightly pressed together, and frozen as a whole. (It Fig. 1. was, however, sometimes served as a block of one sort of ice only, generally sweetened, frozen, pure cream, and used as an accompaniment to fruit.) The modern version of this ice is the Neapolitan, a brick-shaped mould (see Fig. 2) filled in layers with differently tinted and flavoured ices, then turned out, and sliced ORIGIN AND KIND. across so as to show the stripes. The iced pudding is a more or less rich custard mixed with preserved fruits, etc., packed in a mould and frozen; this of course may be of almost any shape. The iced charlotte is, as its name implies, made in the ordinary plain charlotte mould, lined with biscuits, wafers, slices of Genoa or other rich cake, etc., and filled up with any ice to taste. A very modern ver sion of this is the gateau glacé, when a rich cake of some kind is hollowed out and served with a fruit Fig. 2. garnish and a filling of any sort of ice. The iced soufflé is a very rich form of very light whipped custard, placed in a papered soufflé mould, allowed to set in the ice cave, and finally served with the outside paper removed to give it the appearance of having risen (see Fig. 3, for the papering of the mould). The mousse is made of the same preparation as is used for the iced soufflé, only it is moulded instead of being put into the soufflé case. The difference be tween this and the ordinary ice pudding is that in the latter case the ice to be used is first frozen in the freezer till of the consistency of very thick batter, ICES. and is then put into the mould, care being taken to press the ice well into the shape of the mould so that when turned out the outline should be clear and distinct; whereas the soufflé or mousse is mixed and poured at once into the dish in which it is to be served. Lastly, there are the moscovite, and the spongada. The former is a simpler form of iced pudding stiffened with a small proportion of isinglass or best leaf gelatine, which is, however, never actually frozen, though it is iced till as cold as it Fig. 3. is possible to get it. It is therefore well adapted for use in households where freezing conveniences are not available. The spongada is a very light form of whipped cream ice, common in Italy, but seldom, if ever, seen in this country, save when it is occasionally used to fill up a mould lined with ordinary cream or water ice. Besides these there is the parfait, which is very much the same as the spongada, only frozen a little more stiffly, the latter being more like frozen froth, whence its other name of spumante or foaming. ORIGIN AND KIND. Formerly, the process of freezing was a very troublesome and difficult one, requiring more practice and skill than could be easily attained by any one who could not give up all their time to it, and it is to this we owe the difficulty and expense formerly connected with ices, and icing generally. Formerly ice was made in ice-pots or sorbetières, made of pewter, which were stood in pails containing a mixture of ice and salt, the ice-pot being so fitted in that it could be made to revolve by hand; the ice as it congealed at the sides of the ice pot being scraped into the centre with a spoon or spatula. This naturally was a work of time, and tiring at that, as the pot was open to allow of this ice scraping; then, when the mixture had at last frozen to the consistency of batter, it was packed into a mould with a tight fitting lid, the edges of which were then “luted” or pasted down with butter or fat of some kind to prevent any possible contamination from the salt with which the ice was mixed. How frequently this precaution failed many people can doubtless remember, as they recall the curious salty taste so frequently and unaccountably present in ices. This mould thus luted was then buried for a time in the ice and salt mixture until it should have solidified properly, and be fit to turn out. Necessarily much experience was required, and the process did not come within the limits of even the professed cook, who had so much besides to attend to. However, the difficulty has been overcome by various inven tions, both British and foreign, notably American, and in consequence the popularity of ices and iced