If you ask Google for information
on “oyster ice-cream”, it points you to a lot of references. The most
superficial examination however, shows that almost all of these repeat the same
tale almost word for word – that this was one of Mark Twain’s favourite dishes.
That Twain was fond of oysters is
not, I think, in doubt. That oyster ice-cream was one of his favourite ways to
eat the oyster, is, I think, very doubtful indeed. I have been unable (in an
admittedly brief search) to find any mention of oyster ice-cream in connection
with Twain at all. The famous list of foods for which he was pining after a
long winter tour of Europe in 1879, which he detailed in A Tramp Abroad (1880) mentions several oyster dishes, and ‘Iced
sweet milk’, but not ice-cream as such.
Here is the list:
It has now been many
months, at the present writing, since I have had a nourishing meal, but I shall
soon have one--a modest, private affair, all to myself. I have selected a few
dishes, and made out a little bill of fare, which will go home in the steamer
that precedes me, and be hot when I arrive--as follows:
Radishes. Baked apples,
with cream
Fried oysters; stewed
oysters. Frogs.
American coffee, with real
cream.
American butter.
Fried chicken, Southern
style.
Porter-house steak.
Saratoga potatoes.
Broiled chicken, American style.
Hot biscuits, Southern
style.
Hot wheat-bread, Southern
style.
Hot buckwheat cakes.
American toast. Clear maple
syrup.
Virginia bacon, broiled.
Blue points, on the half
shell.
Cherry-stone clams.
San Francisco mussels,
steamed.
Oyster soup. Clam Soup.
Philadelphia Terapin soup.
Oysters roasted in
shell-Northern style.
Soft-shell crabs.
Connecticut shad.
Baltimore perch.
Brook trout, from Sierra
Nevadas.
Lake trout, from Tahoe.
Sheep-head and croakers,
from New Orleans.
Black bass from the
Mississippi.
American roast beef.
Roast turkey, Thanksgiving
style.
Cranberry sauce. Celery.
Roast wild turkey.
Woodcock.
Canvas-back-duck, from
Baltimore.
Prairie chickens, from
Illinois.
Missouri partridges,
broiled.
'Possum. Coon.
Boston bacon and beans.
Bacon and greens, Southern
style.
Hominy. Boiled onions.
Turnips.
Pumpkin. Squash. Asparagus.
Butter beans. Sweet
potatoes.
Lettuce. Succotash. String
beans.
Mashed potatoes. Catsup.
Boiled potatoes, in their
skins.
New potatoes, minus the
skins.
Early rose potatoes, roasted
in the ashes, Southern style, served hot.
Sliced tomatoes, with sugar
or vinegar. Stewed tomatoes.
Green corn, cut from the
ear and served with butter and pepper.
Green corn, on the ear.
Hot corn-pone, with
chitlings, Southern style.
Hot hoe-cake, Southern
style.
Hot egg-bread, Southern
style.
Hot light-bread, Southern
style.
Buttermilk. Iced sweet
milk.
Apple dumplings, with real
cream.
Apple pie. Apple fritters.
Apple puffs, Southern
style.
Peach cobbler, Southern
style
Peach pie. American mince pie.
Pumpkin pie. Squash pie.
All sorts of American
pastry.
Fresh American fruits of
all sorts, including strawberries which are not to be doled out as if they were
jewelry, but in a more liberal way. Ice-water - not prepared in the ineffectual
goblet, but in the sincere and capable refrigerator.
That there were frozen oyster
dishes at the time is not in doubt. Mary Randolph, in The Virginia Housewife: or, Methodical Cook
(Baltimore, 1838) gives a recipe for ‘Oyster Cream’ based on her Oyster Soup
recipe:
Oyster Cream.
Make a rich soup (see
directions for oyster soup,) strain it from the oysters, and freeze it.
Oyster Soup.
Wash and drain two quarts
of oysters, put them on with three quarts of water, three onions chopped up,
two or three slices of lean ham, pepper and salt; boil it till reduced
one-half, strain it through a sieve, return the liquid into the pot, put in one
quart of fresh oysters, boil it till they are sufficiently done, and thicken
the soup with four spoonsful of flour, two gills of rich cream, and the yelks
of six new laid eggs beaten well; boil it a few minutes after the thickening is
put in. Take care that it does not curdle, and that the flour is not in lumps;
serve it up with the last oysters that were put in. If the flavour of thyme be
agreeable, you may put in a little, but take care that it does not boil in it
long enough to discolour the soup.
This is surely not ice-cream, but
very chilled soup?
What would make it ice-cream? A
lot of sugar, surely?
There are plenty of precedents
for ‘savoury’ ice-creams. One famous version has featured on this blog before,
and I give it to you again as it fits well into this discussion:
Take six eggs, half a pint
of syrup and a pint of cream; put
them into a stewpan and boil them until it begins to thicken; then rasp three
ounces of parmesan cheese; mix the whole well together and pass it through a
sieve, then freeze it according to custom.
The Cook's Dictionary and
House-keeper's Directory … by Richard Dolby (1830)
And the
following recipe, from the famous chef Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico’s in New
York, is not only asparagus flavoured, but asparagus coloured and shaped. How
delightful. If only I could find an asparagus ice-cream mould, I might be
tempted to make this.
ASPARAGUS (Asperges)
[ICE]
Cook one pound of asparagus
tips in plenty of unsalted water; drain and lay them in a tinned basin with ten
egg-yolks and twelve ounces of sugar; mix thoroughly, incorporating a pint of
boiling milk; cook this preparation without allowing to boil, and put aside to
cool, then add a pint of cream; color a third part to a pale green; strain
through a sieve, and freeze the parts separately. With this ice fill some
asparagus-shaped molds, the stalks or third part to be of the green ice, and
the remainder white. Freeze the molds for half an hour, unmold, tie in bunches
of three with a pink ribbon, and dress on napkins. Serve separately a sauce
made of vanilla ice cream (No. 3458), whipped cream (No. 50) and maraschino.
Asparagus can also be imitated by filling the molds with pistachio (No. 3454)
and vanilla ice cream (No. 3458), and serving the same as the above.
The Epicurean, Charles Ranhofer
(New York, 1894)
Quotation
for the Day.
“Without ice cream, there would
be darkness and chaos.”
Don Kardong
Don Kardong
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