Everyone knows that Americans have a sweet tooth. And I can add from experience that they have a very cold one, too. This fondness for ice cream might have become as great in other countries if ice cream had been as easy to get. but in no other country has ice ever been manufactured so widely and sold cheaply. In no other country are automatic refrigerators considered a necessity instead of a luxury. Thus it is that frozen desserts have become as common to Americans as pommes de lerre friles to Frenchmen.
Few Europeans think of ice cream—or water ice—as an everyday dessert. In very few homes would it even be considered a company dessert. In France, for example, fruit in one form or another is the climax. Peaches, pears, apples, ripe and succulent, are served whole and eaten gracefully with a knife or fork. Fruits are combined in a macédoine or compote often enhanced with a little kirsch or oilier liqueur. And many fruits go into tarts or puddings such as apple charlotte. Pots de crème, crème caramel, and oeufs à la neige are other dessert favorites. But let entremets glacés —frozen desserts? The French housewife considers them part of the elaborate menus served in expensive establishments. Or if she plans to serve one at her own soirée, it will be made in the form of an elegant bombe by the pâtisserie which will probably send Someone to unmold and garnish it. She won't want a simple dish of vanilla ice cream and orange ice, mats non! That would appear as a bombe Elysée made by lining a mold with orange ice and tilling the center with a vanilla mousse into which little raisins well marinated in cognac are mixed. Then rosettes of fluffy crèate Chantilly would be nestled against the bombe, a white foil between the silver serving dish and the orange ice. Nor would ice cream with a fruit sauce be considered quite elegant enough for a real party. More probably pêcbe or poire belle dijonuaise would appear. In this the fruit is masked with black currant ice and (he whole sauced with a sauce rice flavored with kirsch or pnunelle liqueur.
The old New York Ritz had a very fine ice-cream plant that could turn out as much as fifty gallons of ice creams and water ices daily. This enabled us to serve unusual flavors because we used expensive fruits and what we made was of extraordinary quality. We used our ice creams and ices and mousses (which are the mixtures frozen in molds without being churned) for bombes, coupes, coeurs, and souffle's glacis in combinations of flavors that were almost endless and with still further variation with fruits in season and appropriate sauces. We often named these combinations for one of our regular guests—always for a lady and often for famous singers and actresses: Mary Garden, Grace Moore, Mary Pickford, and so on. Sweets are seldom named for men. Although a spaghetti sauce is called Caruso, a dessert will be pear Geraldine Farrar. Sometimes the name is for the place where the flavor originated. Thus a bombe Floride is tangerine ice with a center of curaçao mousse and a bombe mexicaine is coffee ice cream with chocolate-mousse.
In those early years of the Ritz we had a mître d' hôtel, the famous Theodore Tzarvas, whom all our guests knew merely a; Theodore and who may be remembered by many people who read this. He was one of those perfect maitre d's born with a sixth sense about food and its service. Or maybe it was just that he went to so much trouble to have everything perfect. At any rate, he checked with me each day to find out what was best coming from the markets so that he could give better advice on the menus to be served when guests reserved tables. But one of his stratagem was not to specify the dessert. He would merely say, “I will have a Special frozen dessert for you.” At dinner time he would make a note of the colors of the gowns of the various hostesses and would have us make special combinations in the kitchen to match them. A pink gown called for strawberry or raspberry ice cream or ice, green meant pistachio, and so on. Eventually it became the custom for the knowing guests to look forward to Theodore's presenting a beautifully molded bombe for a hostess to see before it was served and to hear him say, “To match Madame's gown.” You can imagine the staff we had in our pastry department to keep up with Theodore when five to six hundred covers would be served each night in the roof garden restaurant.
Certain desserts were served on large pieces of sculptured ice called socles, some big enough to require two waiters to carry. I recall a party given for an important guest from Java at which strawberries Fedora were served thus.
Strawberries Fedora
Cut off the top of a huge, very ripe pineapple. Remove the edible part and cut it into small slices or dice. Mix them with an equal amount of strawberries. Add sugar to taste and flavor with kirsch, let them stand in the refrigerator for a few hours. When ready to serve, put a layer of orange ice in the bottom of the pineapple shell, then a layer of fruit, a layer of orange ice, one of fruit, and so on until the pineapple is filled. Replace the top and veil with spun sugar.
I would say that the ultra in frozen desserts are the bombes, coupes, coeurs, and soufflés glacis. A bombe is molded in a metal ice cream mold which has its own snug-fitting cover and is frozen by burying the mold in a mixture of two parts finely chopped ice and one part coarse ice cream salt. A water ice is usually combined with either an ice cream or a mousse, although sometimes a mousse and an ice cream are used together. Flavors are selected to harmonize. The water ice is spread about an inch thick all around the inside surface of the mold and the center is filled with the mousse or ice cream. You can buy the ice cream or water ice or you can freeze cither at home, but you will probably have to make a mousse yourself. And well worth the trouble, especially since it can be done in an automatic refrigerator.
A coupe is almost any combination of ice cream, water ice, fruit, sauce, and whipped cream. In this country a coupe is usually served in a tall, slender glass, but in France it is just as often served in a bowl-shaped glass dish. Peach Mary Pickford, which is half a peach topped with coffee ice cream, dressed with apricot sauce, and decorated with whipped cream, is a coupe, as is the belle dijonnaise already described.
Coeurs and souffles glacés are ways of molding and garnishing mousses. For a coeur, the mousse is molded in individual or large heart-shaped molds; after it is unmolded, a sauce or fruit and a sauce are poured around it. Then chocolate leaves, praline (see January, 1951), or other suitable decorations are added.
For a soufflé glacé, the mousse is molded in a soufflé dish with an inch-wide rim of paper extending above the edge of the mold so that when the mixture is frozen the paper can be removed and the frozen mixture will extend above the dish to look like a soufflé. I once made a special soufflé glacé for Geraldine Farrar and named it for her. My trick that time was to put in another rim of paper that left the center empty and to pour the mousse in between the outside and inside rims. When the soufflé was frozen, both pieces of paper were removed, and the center cavity was filled with fruit flavored with a liqueur and the lop decorated with whipped cream. In large establishments the coeurs and soufflés glacés are frozen in special brine cabinets, but at home they can be done in the freezing unit of automatic refrigerators or freezers.
How to make a simple but delicious bombe at home? Are there any tricks? Well, I think a fruit ice such as orange or raspberry for the outside and a center of vanilla mousse is a very delicious combination. You can purchase the water ice. Then you can make the center in one of two ways.
Vanilla Ice Cream Mousse
Let 1 pint of vanilla ice cream stand at room temperature until it softens just a little and fold into it ½ pint heavy cream, whipped stiff. Although this is not a true mousse, it will give you a mousselike texture when frozen. Have the mold as cold as possible and the water ice very firm when you spread it on the inside and the ice cream or mousse in the center. And the trick is to fill the mold to the very top and cover it with a piece of wax piper. If the cover fits tightly, there is little chance of water seeping in. But an extra precaution is to dip a strip of cotton cloth in melted shortening and wrap two or three layers of it around the seam of the cover. The cold hardens the fat which seals the mold from salty water. Bury this in the two-to-one mixture of ice and salt and allow 2 to 2 ½ hours for it to harden.
The other way to make the mousse is with either a pâte ft bombe foundation or an appareil à mousse. The pale ft bombe is a cooked mixture of egg yolks and sugar syrup to which whipped cream and flavoring are added. The appareils can be either cooked or uncooked mixtures of egg yolk and sugar to which whipped cream and flavoring are added. The advantage of the cooked mixtures is that after he egg yolks and syrup have been cooked, they can be kept in the refrigerator for two or three days. It is easy then to add cream and flavor when ready to make the mousse. The uncooked mixture won't keep but must be froqen immediately.
Pâte à Bombe
Bring ¾ cup sugar and ½ cup water to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Let the syrup cool. Blend 4 egg yolks in the top of a double boiler and add the sugar syrup gradually. Add soma of the fine seeds from the inside of a vanilla bean for flavoring. Cook over hot but never boiling water, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes creamy and thick. Rub the cream through a fine sieve and whip until it cools.
Mousses from Pâte à Bombe
For a vanilla mousse, whip 1 pint heavy cream until stiff, flavor with vanilla, to taste, and fold into the above amount of pâle à bombe.
Or omit the vanilla and feld in ½ cup melted chocolate for chocolate mousse; coffee extract to taste for coffee mousse; or flavor to taste with a sweetened fruit purée—strawberry, peach, and so on. Freeze in the freezing unit of an automatic refrigerator, at the coldest setting, or in a mold buried in ice and salt.
Appareil à Mousse (Uncooked Mousse Preparation)
Stir the yolks of 6 eggs until they are broken up and add gradually ½ cup sugar. Beat together until creamy. Whip 1 ½ cups cream until stiff and fold into the egg-yolk mixture. Flavor with the seeds scraped from the inside of a vanilla bean; or with ½ cup melted chocolate; or with coffee extract; or with sweetened fruit purée to taste. Freeze in the freezing unit of an automatic refrigerator, at the coldest setting, or in a mold buried in ice and salt.
Appareil à Mousse (Cooked Mousse Preparation)
Make a vanilla sauce as follows: Scald ½ cup milk and ½ cup light cream with a piece of vanilla bean in the lop of a double boiler. Heat 2 egg yolks until light, add ¼ cup sugar, and combine with the hot liquid, Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly until the mixture has a custardlike consistency. Strain through a fine sieve and cool. Fold in 1 cup heavy cream whipped stiff. Freeze in the freezing unit of an automatic refrigerator, at the coldest setting, or in a mold buried in ice and salt.
The following are some of the frozen desserts that we served at the old Ritz, some of them made and named for guests or for special occasions.
Poire ou Pêcbe Mary Garden
Place a well-drained poached pear or peach on a large macaroon. On one side put a small mold of vanilla ice cream and on the other side one of raspberry water ice. Coat with apricot sauce flavored with kirsch (see June, 1951). Decorate the top with spin sugar and crystallized violets (see May, 1951).
Berries Béatrice
Place fresh berries or fruit on raspberry ice, cover with Ritz sauce flavored with anisette, and decorate with spun sugar and crystallized violets.
Figs Santa Clara
Place fresh figs, fruits, or berries on apricot ice and cover with apricot sauce flavored with kirsch (see June, 1951). Decorate with sweetened whipped cream put through a pastry bag with a fancy tube and veil with spun sugar.
Peach Frisson
Remove the pits from stewed peaches and stuff the fruit with vanilla ice cream. Place them on raspberry ice and cover with whipped cream. Sprinkle with chopped praline (see January, 1951) and veil with spun sugar.
And here is the GOURMET recipe for the cover subject: chocolate cups for ice cream or ices. The trick in making the little pleated cups is…
Colettes (Chocolate Cups)
Heat 6 squares of sweet or semisweet chocolate and 2 tablespoons butter over boiling water until the chocolate is almost melted. Remove from the heat and stir it rapidly until the chocolate is completely melted and well blended with the butter.
With a teaspoon swirl the mixture around the inside of 6 paper baking cups, covering the entire inner surface with a thin layer of chocolate. Place the cups in muffin pans and chill until the coaling is firm. When ready to use, peel off the paper and fill the cups with any flavor of ice cream or water ice or sherbet desired. Use a variety of combinations for a rainbow effect. Garnish to taste with chopped nuts, whole nutmeats, whole cherries or berries, slices of cherries or of fruits arranged in designs, shredded coconut, a grating of semi sweet chocolate, candied peel, brandied raisins; decorative and edible, naturally.