Not so many years ago an ice pudding was looked upon as a triumph, of culinary art, that even the average good professed cook would as soon have thought of trying to make, as of trying to fly ; whilst the ordinary ices, served on plates at hall suppers, &c., came as a matter of course from the con- fectioner’s. Now, however, thanks to various im- provements in freezers, ice caves, &c., ice-making has become less of a secret, and very few really good cooks would confess to being ignorant of its preparation ; whilst almost every house-mistress intent on a smart dinner would insist on an iced entremet of some kind, even if she did not also have ices at dessert as well. Both ice and snow have been used for cooling food, both liquid and solid, for centuries, but the ice, as we understand it, has not been known for more than three centuries at the outside, In Prance, at B 2 ICES. all events, such ices did not become at all well known till the reign of Louis XIV., when a Florentine, Procopio by name, introduced them into Paris some- where about 1660, though probably in Italy they were in existence e^rher ; at all events the half- frozen ice of snow-like consistency, known to this day in Italy as a “ granito,” was common . enough even then. The “sorbet,” or semi-fluid ice strongly flavoured with alcohol, which has in modern days succeeded to the position formerly held by punch, is said to be the lineal descendant of the “ sherbet,” so dear to the Oriental, even in the days of the Crusades. Shex’bet then was a mixture of more or less sweetened fiaiit juice or pulp, acidulated with lemon juice and chilled with snow. Presumably early in their connection with India, the British merchants appear to have adopted the sherbet, only adding to it a modicum of spirit of some kind ; whence its name was changed from sherbet to punch, said to be derived from a Sanscrit word meaning five, having reference to the five elements that entered into its composition ; these five parts were water, spice, sugar, spirit, and lemon juice, for the pleasant acid obtained from the tamarind or the lemon were then preferred to other fruits, probably because the Europeans di’opped the custom of chilling their sherbet, using hot water instead of the refrigerants (and thereby incidentally in great measure destroying its wholesomeness), especially when it made its way to Northern climes, where it was received with effusion as a hot drink, specially suited to the cold, humid atmosphere of the Northern winter. We all ORIGIN" AND KIND. 3 know tlie old Preucli proverb that teaches us that Fashion is a revolving wheel ; and this holds true of punch, which was again transformed into a frozen mixture, though the spirit prevented its setting as much as the ordinary ice. It began as a lemon water ice, flavoured wdth various kinds of spirit to taste, from whence it took its name, and gradually all kinds of f iniit water ice replaced the original lemon water. Of ices there are a great variety ; for instance, the ordinary cream and water ices, the iced pudding, the pZom&iere, the bo7nbe, the fi’omage, the iced souffle, the mousse, the moscovite, the charlotte glacee, &c. ; which all denote variety, though truly but little real difference in their composition. Of these, further particulars will be given later.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Not so many years ago an ice pudding was looked upon as a triumph of culinary art, that even the average good professed cook would as soon have thought of trying to make, as of trying to fly ; whilst the ordinary ices, served on plates at hall suppers, &c., came as a matter of course from the confectioner’s. Now, however, thanks to various improvements in freezers, ice caves, &c., ice-making has become less of a secret, and very few really good cooks would confess to being ignorant of its preparation ; whilst almost every house-mistress intent on a smart dinner would insist on an iced entremet of some kind, even if she did not also have ices at dessert as well. Both ice and snow have been used for cooling food, both liquid and solid, for centuries, but the ice, as we understand it, has not been known for more than three centuries at the outside, In France, at B all events, such ices did not become at all well known till the reign of Louis XIV., when a Florentine, Procopio by name, introduced them into Paris somewhere about 1660, though probably in Italy they were in existence earlier ; at all events the halffrozen ice of snow-like consistency, known to this day in Italy as a “ granito,” was common . enough even then. The “sorbet,” or semi-fluid ice strongly flavoured with alcohol, which has in modern days succeeded to the position formerly held by punch, is said to be the lineal descendant of the “ sherbet,” so dear to the Oriental, even in the days of the Crusades. Sherbet then was a mixture of more or less sweetened fiaiit juice or pulp, acidulated with lemon juice and chilled with snow. Presumably early in their connection with India, the British merchants appear to have adopted the sherbet, only adding to it a modicum of spirit of some kind ; whence its name was changed from sherbet to punch, said to be derived from a Sanscrit word meaning five, having reference to the five elements that entered into its composition ; these five parts were water, spice, sugar, spirit, and lemon juice, for the pleasant acid obtained from the tamarind or the lemon were then preferred to other fruits, probably because the Europeans dropped the custom of chilling their sherbet, using hot water instead of the refrigerants (and thereby incidentally in great measure destroying its wholesomeness), especially when it made its way to Northern climes, where it was received with effusion as a hot drink, specially suited to the cold, humid atmosphere of the Northern winter. We all know the old French proverb that teaches us that Fashion is a revolving wheel ; and this holds true of punch, which was again transformed into a frozen mixture, though the spirit prevented its setting as much as the ordinary ice. It began as a lemon water ice, flavoured wdth various kinds of spirit to taste, from whence it took its name, and gradually all kinds of fruit water ice replaced the original lemon water. Of ices there are a great variety ; for instance, the ordinary cream and water ices, the iced pudding, the plombière, the bo7nbe, the fi’omage, the iced souffle, the mousse, the moscovite, the charlotte glacee, &c. ; which all denote variety, though truly but little real difference in their composition. Of these, further particulars will be given later.

The "Queen" cookery books: Ices