The "Queen" cookery books: Ices

Russian Sorbet. — Mix together a good wineglassful of strained lemon juice, a gill of well-infused green tea, and a wineglassful of Kummel, add it all to a pint of sugar syrup (28 deg.), and freeze. St. James’ Sorbet. — Half freeze a pint of lemon water ice, then add to it a wineglassful of kirsch, three-quarters of a pint of stiffly whipped cream, 2oz. or 3oz. of chopped crystallized fruit, loz. blanched and shred almonds or pistachios, and a wineglassful of Silver Rays rum, and finish freezing. (N.B. — This makes a most dehcious dessert ice, and is also excellent as a filling for gateaux, cornets, and fancy ices generally. — Mrs. A. B. Marshall). Strawberry Sorbet. — To a quart of half frozen strawberry water ice add a gill of brandy or rum, or half brandy, and half maraschino to taste, and finish freezing as before. Serve garnished with strawberries (halved if large), marinaded with lemon juice, maraschino, and sugar, and half frozen. To one and a half pints of strawberry water ice add when half frozen two or three good spoonfuls of Italian meringue, and when smooth stir in either two full tablespoonfuls of bottled, or eighteen to twenty fresh strawberries, and half a pint of champagne ; finish freezing, and serve garnished with fresh or bottled Alpine strawberries marinaded in a little sugar and champagne. Strawberry water sorbet, like almost all fruit sorbets, is extremely good if prepared as above only with non-alcoholic liqueurs ; but though in this case such sorbets very nearly reproduce the old sherbet, they are not properly speaking sorbets, a name which, in these days at least, implies a mixture of alcohol of some kind. The granito proper was always made with a light sugar syrup and fresh fruit juice, and in making them the freezing pot or tub was not turned regularly, and moreover only half the ordinary quantity of salt was added to the ice, thus in every way making the freezing irregular and unequal. The granito is at its proper consistency when it is a semi-fluid mass of snow-hke texture mixed with actual little icicles. The process is in every case the same. For instance, for currant granito, take equal quantities of a light sugar syrup (registering 20 degrees on the saccharometer), and the strained juice of the currants obtained as for currant jelly ; pour this into the charged freezing tub, but only adding half a part of salt to two of ice, and begin freezing in the ordinary way, stopping every now and again and letting the machine rest ; in about five minutes it should be just right, and should, properly, be used at once, as it is too liquid to keep well ; and it loses its character if it solidifies. Any fruit juice or thin fnrit pulp can be used thus, and indeed any water ice composition can be used, only using the sugar syrup of the degree just given, and adhering to the unequal freezing. A particularly delicate kind is the granito all’ orciata. For this