Vanilla Ice Cream

ByKara
image

Nearly all of my old Maryland cook-books contain a few pages of ice cream recipes. It was an integral ‘domestic receipt’ by the time Elizabeth Ellicott Lea published the first Maryland cookbook in 1845. Her book contains a characteristically austere four recipes- less than half as many as later authors M.L. Tyson of “Queen of the Kitchen” and Mrs. B. C. Howard in “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen.”

Although it’s been around since colonial times, ice cream experienced a surge in popularity in the 1800′s with the advent of ice-houses and the increased transport of ice.

This popularity continued to grow despite the rather disturbing frequency with which people died from eating it. 

Newspapers regularly reported incidents of people – even large groups of people – getting sick or dying from ice cream tainted with “Ptomaines” – essentially a catch-all theory behind food poisoning.

“The average man wants to know whether his food has these things in it, and what antidote he can take if he finds himself poisoned. On these subjects science has little to say. It is established that the poisonous portion of any particular sample of food cannot be distinguished either chemically or microscopically.” – Baltimore Sun, “IN AWE OF PTOMAINES: Scientists Baffled By The Insidious Poison Which Killed Anton Seidl And Others” 1898

The frequency of food poisoning may explain why there were various crackpot beliefs about foods that should not be consumed with ice cream. Later press releases would occasionally assure readers that, as it turns out, it actually was safe to eat ice cream after eating things such as lobster and oysters.

image

1934

110 years before this exciting news, Mary Randolph had included, amongst her dozen-plus ice-cream recipes in “The Virginia Housewife,” a most revolting-sounding oyster flavor. (I suppose I should mention, if you’ve come across the misinformation that Randolph’s relative Thomas Jefferson introduced ice cream to America, that is incorrect. Read about it here.)

I’ve made custard-based ice creams so many times (my go-to is Ina Garten’s Creme Anglaise) that I kind of forgot there was an alternative. Imagine my surprise when this recipe, taken from the 1874 book “The Queen of the Kitchen: A Collection of ‘old Maryland’ Family Receipts,” was just a matter of combining four ingredients and freezing. Laziest OLP post ever.

image

1899, Baltimore Sun

One might be inclined to hand-wring over the raw egg-whites. They could maybe be left out. I took my chances, especially since I had some farmers-market eggs.

When we feel compelled to romanticize the past, it is worth remembering that the degree of food safety we now enjoy could not always be taken for granted. We also have the luxury of knowing that it is safe to eat oysters and ice cream together, and the wisdom not to.

image

Recipe:

2 quarts of rich cream, 1 pound of white sugar, whites of 4 eggs well beaten, and added. Flavor to taste, and freeze. If preferred, leave out the eggs.

Recipe from “The Queen of the Kitchen: A Collection of “old Maryland” Family Receipts for Cooking : Containing 1007 Practical and Useful Receipts, All of which Have Been Tried and Approved, and Been in Use for Many Years”

image
image
image
image

Similar Posts

  • Maryland Maple Butter & Biscuits

    ByKara

    “A Maryland specialty is producing edibles that enhance some other state’s reputation. Nobody ever hears of Maryland maple syrup, or Maryland country hams or Maryland ducklings, although the State sends forth its share. All the world hears about, from Portland to Pakistan is what is passed off as Maryland fried chicken and which often proves…

  • Olney Inn Sweet Potatoes

    ByKara

    I need a scanner Recipe from the historic Olney Inn via Maryland’s Way (yet again). Here’s a really great link about the Olney Inn with recipes, including the apparently more famous “Olney Inn Sweet Potato Souflee”. Came across that one all over the web. I’ll have to try it sometime. “It was a wonderful place…

  • Cindy Knopp’s white sweet potato coconut pie

    ByKara

    For 36 years, columnist and photographer Brice Stump wrote about life on the Eastern Shore. In his columns, he explored its history – including the Civil War, and pondered the petty tribulations of modern life.

    On one topic in particular, Stump was passionate: White Hayman Sweet Potatoes. Having been raised on a farm, Stump admitted they aren’t easy to grow. But of their flavor, he sang the praises.

    “Unlike the familiar orange-fleshed sweet potatoes that required marshmallows, brown sugar and lots of butter to enhance their nutty flavor, the Hayman tickles the palate with a natural, delicately sweet taste and heavenly texture,” Stump wrote in the Salisbury Daily Times in 1999. In that article, he interviewed Rev. Sally Bowen, a descendent of Daniel Hayman, the ship captain purported to have brought the potatoes from North Carolina to Maryland in the 1850s.

    Although stories trace White Haymans to North Carolina, nary a trace of them can be found there now. White Haymans are a specialty of the Eastern Shore, “raised only for Shore consumers,” wrote Stump.

    Eight years later he bemoaned the proliferation of O’Henrys appearing on the market, ironically “coming out of the Carolinas, apparently.” These pretenders were giving Haymans a bad name. An authenticity test was recommended: “If you put pressure down on your thumb and draw it over the face of a Hayman, it will ‘skin’ easily, whereas the O’Henry wont.”

    If the difference is so stark, that casts a lot of doubt on my last attempt at a white sweet potato pie. This time around, my mom acquired some Haymans from Whiteraven’s Nest in Chincoteague, Virginia – along with several other varieties of sweet potato. So I used a blend. She was warned to cure them several weeks, in a warm and dry place, or else risk defeating the point of even tasting them.