Vanilla Cream

History

'Vanilla Cream' in Mary Randolph's The Virginia House-Wife is a frozen custard, not a set cream: a vanilla bean is boiled in a quart of rich milk until it has imparted the flavour sufficiently, then beaten eggs are stirred in, the mixture is sweetened heavily, and it is frozen. The Virginia House-Wife was first published in 1824 and was reprinted at least nineteen times before the Civil War, and it is generally credited with containing the first ice cream recipe published by an American author. Food historian Karen Hess identified this particular recipe as, in her words, 'the first American recipe that I know of that features vanilla on its own'. Egg-based, French-style ice cream had reached America somewhat earlier through Thomas Jefferson, Randolph's relative by marriage, who is credited with bringing such recipes back from France in the 1780s. The kitchen labor behind Randolph's cookery was largely performed by enslaved Black women; the 1810 census listed her Richmond household as including nine enslaved people.

Ingredients

• 1 bean Vanilla bean
• 1 quart Rich milk
• 8 whole Eggs
• Sugar

Instructions

1. Boil a vanilla bean in a quart of rich milk until it has imparted sufficient flavour, then remove the bean. Mix eight eggs (yolks and whites beaten well) into the milk. Let it boil a little longer. Sweeten very well, as much of the sugar is lost during the freezing process.