The Book of Ices

This is a facsimile of a famed 1885 work on frozen desserts. Author Agnes Marshall was a dynamic entrepreneur who, in addition to writing four books, two of them on ice creams, manufactured and sold a cornucopia of molds for fancy ices, received a patent for a fast-freezing ice cream machine in the days before refrigeration, and may have been one of the first people to propose using liquid nitrogen as a freezing agent. In just 96 pages, as well as providing instructions on using several types of freezers, Mrs. Marshall offers nearly 120 recipes for ice creams, fruit syrups, water ices, sorbets, elaborate bombes, and even some savory ice creams (epinards glacées à la crème, anyone?), along with images of dozens of elaborate molds and an array of other grocery items she sold. Original copies of this book are highly collectible, but this small edition is very reasonably priced and a powerful demonstration that kitchen imagination is not the sole province of our modern times. Engravings. Paperback.