St George's Ladies Group

Angela Beale came to talk about ice cream. Ice cream was popular in Victorian times and ice was imported from abroad to be used in the ice cream making machines. Wealthy landowners would have an ice house in their grounds where large blocks of ice were kept and chunks chopped off when required. Ice cream making was a lengthy process in those days, but labour was very cheap and one kitchen maid would probably be delegated to do just this one job. The Victorians were very fond of their desserts and we saw some photographs of the most elaborate dishes. Angela brought a large range of copper and porcelain jelly moulds, the former would not of course be used now because of their lead content.

Mrs Beeton is a lady everyone has heard of and her cookery book is still being published, but she did not devise the recipes but collected them and presented them in a weekly publication, her husband worked in a publishing company. She had a short and sad life, two of her three children died whilst very small and she died at the age of 28.

The Delia Smith of that time is by contrast someone many people have not heard of. Her name was Mary Marshall and she was a cook who tried out her recipes before having them published. She had a large range of kitchen utensils manufactured bearing her name.

At the end of the evening we were able to taste three different ice creams that the speaker had made and brought with her, Banana Ice Cream, Lemon Yogurt Ice Cream and Honeycomb Crunch Ice Cream, the latter of which proved to be the most popular. It was really delicious and the recipe is below in case anyone is interested in making it.

Honeycombe Crunch Ice Cream
Serves 4

1 pint whipping cream
1 small tin condensed milk
2 tbsp golden syrup
5 tbsp sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1. Heat sugar and syrup in pan until melted, then boil for 3-4 minutes until a deep golden colour. Remove from heat and stir in bicarbonate of soda (mixture will froth up) and immediately pour on to a greased tray to set.

2. Whip the cream until thick but not stiff and fold in the condensed milk.

3. Crush the honeycombe and fold the pieces into the cream mixture.

4. Put in freezer container, cover and freeze. Use within 10 days.

Margaret Deal