LEMON ICE CREAM.

Have ready two quarts of very rich thick cream, and take out a pint.
Stir gradually into the pint, a pound of the best loaf-sugar powdered
fine; and the grated rind and the juice of four ripe lemons of the
largest size, or of five or six smaller ones. If you cannot procure the
fruit, you may flavour the cream with essence or oil of lemon; a
tea-spoonful or more, according to its strength. The strongest and best
essence of lemon is the white or whitish; when tinged with green, it is
comparatively weak, having been diluted with water; if quite green, a
large tea-spoonful will not communicate as much flavour as five or six
drops of the white. After you have mixed the pint of cream with the
sugar and lemon, beat it gradually and hard into the remaining cream,
that is, the three pints. Cover it, and let it stand to infuse from
half an hour to an hour. Then taste it, and if you think it necessary,
stir in a little more lemon juice or a little more sugar. Strain it
into the freezer through a fine strainer, (a tin one with small close
holes is best,) to get rid of the grated lemon-peel, which if left in
would prevent the cream from being smooth. Cover the freezer, and stand
it in the ice cream tub, which should be filled with a mixture, in
equal quantities, of coarse salt, and ice broken up as small as
possible, that it may lie close and compact round the freezer, and thus
add to its coldness. Snow, when it can be procured, is still better
than ice to mix with the salt. It should be packed closely into the
tub, and pressed down hard. Keep turning the freezer about by the
handle till the cream is frozen, which it will generally be in two
hours. Occasionally open the lid and scrape down the cream from the
sides with a long-handled tin spoon. Take care that no salt gets in, or
the cream will be spoiled. When it is entirely frozen, take it out of
the freezer and put it into your mould; set it again in the tub, (which
must be filled with fresh ice and salt,) and leave it undisturbed till
you want it for immediate use. This second freezing, however, should
not continue longer than two hours, or the cream will become
inconveniently and unpleasantly hard, and have much of the flavour
frozen out of it. Place the mould in the ice tub, with the head
downwards, and cover the tub with pieces of old carpet while the second
freezing is going on. When it has arrived at the proper consistence,
and it is time to serve it up, dip a cloth in hot water, and wrap it
round the mould for a few moments, to loosen the cream and make it come
out easily; setting the mould on a glass or china dish. If a pyramid or
obelisk mould, lift it carefully off the top. If the mould or form
represents doves, dolphins, lap-dogs, fruit baskets, &c. it will open
down the middle, and must be taken off in that manner. Serve it up
immediately lest it begin to melt. Send round sponge-cake with it, and
wine or cordials immediately after.

If you have no moulds, but intend serving it up in a large bowl or in
glasses, it must still be frozen twice over; otherwise it can have no
smoothness, delicacy, or consistence, but will be rough and coarse, and
feel in the mouth like broken icicles. The second freezing (if you have
no mould) must be done in the freezer, which should be washed out, and
set again in the tub with fresh ice and salt. Cover it closely, and let
the cream stand in it untouched, but not less than two hours. When you
put it into glasses, heap it high on the top.

Begin to make ice cream about five or six hours before it is wanted for
use. If you commence it too early, it may probably be injured by having
to remain too long in the second freezing, as it must not be turned out
till a few moments before it is served up. In damp weather it requires
a longer time to freeze.

If cream is scarce, mix with it an equal quantity of rich milk, and
then add, for each quart, two table-spoonfuls of powdered arrow-root
rubbed smooth in a little cold milk. Orange ice cream is made in the
same manner as lemon.