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PERSIAN SHERBET (a refreshing summer beverage)
Boil six or eight stalks of green rhubarb and a quarter of a pound of raisins or figs, cut into slices, in three pints of water. When the liquid has boiled gently for half an hour, strain it through muslin, and stir into it as much lemon or orange syrup as is agreeable to the taste, and a few drops of rose water or orange-flower water. Probable cost, 4d. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A rhubarb-and-dried-fruit infusion sweetened and perfumed to taste. The whole thing rests on the strain and the restraint with the flower water.
- Rhubarb stalks onlyUse the pink or green stalks and cut away every trace of leaf. Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid in quantity and are not food; the stalks are entirely ordinary.
- How much rhubarb"Six or eight stalks" varies wildly with the plant. Aim for about 1 lb (450 g) of trimmed stalks, chopped, which gives a bright, tart infusion in three pints of water.
- Imperial pintsCassell's pints are 20 fl oz, so three pints is 60 fl oz, or about 7 US cups / 1.7 litres. Expect to lose a cup or so to evaporation and to the fruit.
- Raisins or figsA quarter pound is 115 g. They are there for body and background sweetness rather than flavour; dried figs give a rounder, slightly honeyed result, raisins a cleaner one.
- Strain properlyHalf an hour of gentle boiling collapses the rhubarb into fibrous pulp. Line a sieve with damp muslin and let it drip rather than pressing, or the drink turns cloudy and gritty.
- Lemon or orange syrupThis is simple syrup infused or mixed with citrus juice and zest, not modern cordial concentrate. Equal weights sugar and water boiled briefly, then juice added off the heat, will do; start with half a cup and taste.
- Flower waters"A few drops" is meant literally. Modern rose and orange-flower waters vary a good deal in strength, so add cautiously; a quarter teaspoon in the whole batch is often enough before it starts tasting of soap.
- ServingChill thoroughly and serve over ice; the tartness flattens at room temperature. Two or three persons by the book's reckoning, but as a tall iced drink it stretches to four.
The word sherbet comes through Turkish from the Arabic sharbat, a sweetened, chilled, non-alcoholic drink of the Persian and Ottoman world, usually built on fruit, flower waters and sugar and often served from a syrup diluted at the table. Nineteenth-century British cookery borrowed the name enthusiastically and the substance loosely: by the time Cassell's was compiled, "sherbet" in an English household book could mean an effervescing powder, a water ice, or, as here, a domestic fruit infusion dressed up with rose or orange-flower water to gesture eastward. Rhubarb was cheap and abundant in the British kitchen garden in early summer. The costing of fourpence, given as a matter of course throughout the book, is a reminder that Cassell's readership was expected to weigh every dish against the housekeeping money.