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Ginger Water Ice
Make a syrup by boiling together half a pound of refined sugar with half a pint of water and the thin rind of a large lemon, for ten minutes. Strain, and add two table-spoonfuls of lemon-juice and a quarter of a pound of preserved ginger--half of which has been well pounded in a mortar, and half cut into thin slices. Mix thoroughly, pour into a mould, and freeze. Probable cost, about 10d. Sufficient for rather more than a pint of ice.
A Victorian water ice built on a plain lemon syrup, with preserved ginger doing all the work. The mixture is quite lean in sugar for its volume, so how you freeze it decides whether you get sorbet or a solid brick.
- Weights and volumesHalf a pound of sugar is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons; half a pint in a British book of this period is 10 fl oz, so roughly 1¼ US cups. A quarter of a pound of preserved ginger is 4 oz drained, best weighed rather than measured by volume.
- "Refined sugar"This means white loaf or lump sugar as opposed to raw or brown. Ordinary granulated is the modern equivalent; nothing is gained by using anything finer.
- Preserved gingerStem ginger in syrup, sold in jars, is what is wanted here — not crystallised ginger and not fresh root. If you use crystallised, rinse off the sugar coating first or the ice will be cloyingly sweet; fresh ginger is far too hot and will not dissolve into the syrup the same way.
- The rindPare the lemon thinly with a peeler so no white pith goes in, and pull it out at the straining stage as directed. Ten minutes of boiling with pith turns the syrup bitter.
- Freezing without an ice house"Pour into a mould and freeze" assumes a mould packed in ice and salt, worked by hand. In an ice cream machine, chill the mixture thoroughly first and churn 20–25 minutes. Still-freezing in a shallow tray works if you break up the crystals with a fork every 30 minutes for about three hours.
- TextureAdding a tablespoon of the ginger jar syrup lowers the freezing point slightly and keeps it scoopable; let it stand 10 minutes at room temperature before serving in any case.
- Yield"Rather more than a pint" is about 2½ US cups — four small servings. It is a palate cleanser or a light dessert rather than a bowlful.
Water ices — sugar syrup, an acid, a flavouring, no dairy — are often said to be the older half of the frozen dessert tradition in Britain, reaching fashionable tables before cream ices became common at home. Cassell's places this in a run of frozen sweets that assume a household with access to block ice and coarse salt, still a mark of some means when the New Dictionary of Cookery was compiled, a volume usually placed at the turn of the century or later; the stated cost of tenpence presumably covers ingredients only. The preserved ginger points to the China trade: stem ginger put up in heavy syrup was imported in glazed stoneware jars and was a familiar, if slightly luxurious, store-cupboard item in Victorian kitchens, used as a sweetmeat as much as a cooking ingredient. Pairing it with lemon is a straightforward exercise in balance — the acid keeps a sugar-heavy preserve from tasting flat once frozen, since cold dulls sweetness and sharpness alike.