The "Queen" cookery books: Ices

From the librarian's dossier · AI-generated, grounded in the scanned text

This is a specialist volume from the "Queen" cookery books series, published in 1902 and devoted entirely to iced desserts and frozen confections. Author S. Beaty-Pownall assembles a detailed, technically minded guide covering cream ices, water ices, sorbets, granites, moulded ices, iced puddings, moscovites, mousses, souffles, parfaits, spongadas, charlottes, gateaux glaces, iced fruit fools, savoury ices, iced beverages, and the sugar work and preserved fruits that support them. With 218 anchored food records across just seven sections, the book is dense with named recipes, reflecting the elaborate frozen-dessert repertoire of a well-staffed Edwardian kitchen or confectionery house. Readers will find not only recipes but explanations of technique: how to whip custards over heat, how to boil sugar through its stages, how to freeze without mechanical equipment using gelatin or ice-and-salt beds, and how to mould and turn out ices for formal presentation. The savoury ices chapter, featuring foie gras and vegetable creams, and the sections on sorbets served as a digestive course at formal dinners, place the book firmly within a tradition of elaborate multi-course dining. This dossier draws only on the book's own section summaries and catalog metadata, offering a guide to what the text itself contains rather than outside history.

The book is organized into numbered chapters that move from foundational categories to more elaborate or specialized preparations. Section 2 opens with Chapter III covering cream ices and water ices, plus an introduction to sorbets and granitos. Section 3 continues sorbets and granite (Chapter IV) before introducing moulded ices. Section 4 covers iced puddings (Chapter VI) and moscovites. Section 5 addresses mousses, souffles, and parfaits (Chapters VII-VIII, rendered inconsistently in headings). Section 6 continues parfaits, introduces spongadas (Chapter IX), then charlottes and gateaux glaces, iced fruit fools, and savoury ices (Chapter X). Section 7 continues savoury ices, then moves to iced drinks (Chapter XI) and sugar work, caramel, and syrup techniques (Chapter XII). Section 8 closes with fruit preservation, wafers, and a full index of recipes with page numbers. The organization proceeds by technique and dessert category rather than alphabetically.