Ice cream is a very old confection, dating back to the ancient Chinese. It became very popular during Victorian times when it was sold on the streets by Italian vendors.
Isabella Beeton published a very successful book in 1861 titled the ‘Book of Household Management’ which popularized home-made ice cream, in many different flavours and varieties.
Custard was used in many of these ice cream recipes as the base:
Ingredients:
2 ½ cups milk
4 egg yolks-beaten.
2/3 cup full cream
½ cup sugar
Warm the milk gently over a low heat, then whisk in the beaten egg yolks. Stir the mixture over a gentle heat till it is thicker. When a little cooled, stir in the sugar. Cool the mix. Then add the cream.
These are some of the flavours that can be added:
-sugar which has been caramelized-150ml added to 2.5 cups custard mix.
-one cup crushed biscuits to 3 ¾ custard mixture.
½ cup sweetened black coffee, 100 ml cream to 2 ½ cups custard.
One tbl ginger syrup, ½ cup sugared ginger to 3 ¾ cups custard.
Stir the flavour of your choice into the custard mixture. Freeze this for one hour, then whisk the slightly frozen mix. Place back in the freezer for 2-3 hours until solid.
Jam was also a popular flavouring. The sugar in the custard recipe was replaced with ½ cup of jam to give a delicious fruit flavour.
Decorations were added to each serve, with garnishes such as sugared peel, petals (roses, violets), almond slivers or berries.
