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Lemon, Essence Of
Choose fresh, sound lemons, wipe them well with a soft cloth, then take two or three large lumps of sugar and rub the yellow rind entirely off. Powder the sugar, put it into a glass jar, press it down, and cover it carefully to exclude the air, as the flavour of lemon quickly evaporates. Keep it in a cool dry place. Time, half an hour to prepare. Probable cost of lemons, 1d. each. A very small portion of the essence of lemon will flavour a pint of custard.
This is lemon sugar rather than an alcoholic extract: the sugar loaf acts as an abrasive and a solvent, pulling the zest oil out of the peel and holding it. A few points worth knowing before you start.
- The hinge: rub, do not grateThe whole method depends on the sugar scraping only the coloured outer layer, where the oil sits. Once you reach the white pith you are adding bitterness and moisture, both of which spoil the keeping.
- "Large lumps of sugar"Victorian sugar came in hard loaves that were nipped into irregular lumps, ideal for rubbing. Modern cube sugar is softer and crumbles quickly; work over a bowl and press the crumbs back against the peel, or use two or three cubes per lemon and expect to lose some.
- Powdering the sugar"Powder" means crush to a fine grain, originally in a mortar. A short pulse in a spice grinder or food processor does the same job.
- Unwaxed fruitMost supermarket lemons carry a food-grade wax that will come off into the sugar. Buy unwaxed, or scrub under hot water and dry thoroughly — the recipe's insistence on a dry cloth matters, since any water invites mould.
- StorageThe warning about evaporation is sound. A small jar filled to the top with as little air space as possible, lid tight, kept cool and dry as the recipe directs; the flavour fades with keeping.
- Yield and strengthTwo or three lumps gives only a tablespoon or so of flavoured sugar. The claim that "a very small portion" flavours a pint of custard assumes sugar well saturated with oil — add cautiously and taste as you go.
- Substituting in other recipesWhen using it in place of grated zest, remember it is mostly sugar. Deduct the same volume from the sugar called for in the recipe.
Before commercial flavouring extracts were cheap and reliable, rubbing zest off with sugar was a common household way to capture citrus oil, and it turns up in English cookery books from the eighteenth century onward under names like lemon sugar. It is groundwork rather than a dish: a flavouring to have on hand for custards, puddings and cakes. The price note — a penny a lemon — is a reminder that imported citrus was an everyday grocery in late-Victorian Britain, mostly shipped from the Mediterranean, but not so cheap that the peel would be thrown away. The technique survives in professional kitchens in the making of oleosaccharum, the sugar-and-oil base for punch, which works on exactly the same principle.