This simple recipe from 1909 seemed like the perfect way to kick off National Ice Cream Month.

Cherry Ice Cream (original recipe cut in half to fit in 1.5 quart ice cream maker):

• 1/2 pound sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups white cherries, pitted
• 2 cups heavy cream

1. Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then turn up the heat and bring to a boil.
2. Carefully add the cherries to the water and sugar and simmer for about 15 minutes, turning down the heat if it starts to boil over.
3. Strain the syrup into a medium bowl. Save the cherries and set them in a small bowl in the fridge to chill.
4. When the syrup has cooled down to room temperature, stir in the cream, then place in the fridge until completely cold (at least 1 hour).
5. Freeze the syrup and cream in a 1.5 quart ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When the mixture is almost completely frozen, add the solid cherries back in and continue freezing.
6. Pack the ice cream in a container and place in the freezer until firm.

Tasting notes:

For a three ingredient recipe, this tastes amazing. The white cherries have a nice flavor that’s a little lighter than most red cherries, and I like that the recipe author chose to mix the cherry halves back into the ice cream rather than pureeing them or leaving them out entirely. If I were to make this again I might add a little bit of vanilla, but the cherry flavor is still lovely as is (although it’s even better served with chocolate sauce). I chose to use all heavy cream this time because I wanted to use up the entire container, but usually when I make ice cream I substitute milk for about 1/3 of the heavy cream since many historic recipes were using something closer to single or light cream. That would certainly work for this recipe too.

References:

Curtis, I.G. (Ed.). (1909). The good housekeeping woman’s home cook book. Chicago: The Reilly & Britton Co. https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5zw1f175