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The "Queen" cookery books: Ices

1902

Page 18 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1902. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Tutti-Frutti Water Ice. — This can be made in two ways. (1) Crush any fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, currants, cherries, gooseberries, &c., to a pulp, and to each quart of this pulp add a full pint of sugar syrup flavoured with lemon juice and maras- chino, or other liqueur or liqueur syrTutti-Frutti Water Iceup, and let it stand till cold ; then freeze as usual. This makes a delicious ice. The syrup should be 32° on the saccharometer. (2) The other way of preparing this is to cut up any fruit, fresh, candied, preserved, or canned, just as they come, into dice, sprinkle these 'with a little sugar and liqueur syrup, and then stir them into half-frozen lemon water ice in the proportion of half a pound of fruit to each quart of ice. This is a capital way of using up any fruit left over from dessert. Make the lemon water ice according to the second recipe for orange water ice. CHAPTER III. SOEBETS AND GrRANITI. The sorlet and the graiiito were probably the earliest form of table ice invented, as for neither of them was actual ice reaUy needed; the necessary coohng being effected by the use of snow alone. The sorbet, as its name implies, is a direct descendant of the Oriental “sherbet,” and probably, in the first instance, was popularised in Europe at the time of the Crusades, as those religious warriors, the Crusaders, and the various orders of military monks of that time, greatly affected Eastern habits, and brought over a train of Moorish and Turkish slaves, to whom the preparation of sherbet would naturally be no novelty. The granito probably obtained its name from the little tinkling grains of ice found in the semi-liquid mass, and produced by the uneven freezing. The granito has stayed chiefly in the country of its first adoption— Italy— and is a form of water ice much enjoyed by all who visit Naples especially. To sherbet, or sorbet as it became, a curious fate was reserved. Having originated as a coohng drink for the use and refreshment of the inhabitants of the sultry chmes round about the equator, it attracted SORBETS AND GRANITI. 41 thti notice of the Europeans, whose trading instincts carried them to the rich markets of the East, some three centuries ago. They developed the dainty mixture of sweet and sour obtained by the use of sugar or honey, and fruit pulp, by the addition of alcohol, without which those worthy gentlemen were apt to think no beverage wholesome; and thus having spoilt the sherbet, to Moslem ideas, by this addition, the latter called the new drink “ punch,” or rather by a Sanscrit word of somewhat similar sound, indicating five, by reason of the five elements, sugar, water, fruit pulp, spice, and lastly alcohol, of which the novelty was composed. They probably drank it cooled with snow like the natives, but when they brought it home with them they substituted boiling, for the semi-frozen water, fortifying it with the strongest liquor obtainable, till the erstwhile summer drink developed into a brew strong enough to counteract even the cold of the Northern yuletide. This punch was first served, as it still is, at City banquets, after the turtle soup had gone round ; then its excellent peptic effects being recognised, it was adopted as a digestive after the heavy part of the dinner, and so obtained the position in the menu now always kept by the sorbet, immediately after the joint, and just preceding the rot, or roast, or, as we more common