Powders, Sherbet

This is a cross-reference rather than a standalone formula: everything depends on the entry for Lemonade Powders, and the only new instruction is to swap the flavouring. A few things are worth knowing before you attempt it.

• No quantities are given hereThe entry supplies no weights at all, so anything you make rests entirely on the lemonade powder formula elsewhere in the book. Read that entry first and work from its proportions rather than guessing.
• What a sherbet powder actually isVictorian effervescent powders are generally a dry acid (tartaric or citric), a comparable quantity of bicarbonate of soda, and a much larger bulk of finely powdered sugar carrying the flavour. Nothing fizzes until water is added, which is the whole point of the format.
• Bicarbonate of soda, not baking powderPeriod recipes may call it carbonate of soda or saleratus. Use plain bicarbonate of soda; modern baking powder already contains its own acid and starch and will taste of neither lemon nor sherbet.
• Everything must be bone dryThis is the hinge. Sugar, acid and bicarbonate must be dried and sieved separately, and mixed in a dry bowl with dry hands on a dry day. Any trace of moisture starts the reaction in the jar and you are left with flat, caked powder.
• Icing sugar rather than granulatedWhere such recipes call for "powdered" or "pounded" sugar, they generally mean sugar reduced to dust in a mortar; this entry itself specifies nothing. Unrefined icing sugar or caster sugar ground fine gives much the same result, and granulated sugar is slower to dissolve in a tumbler of cold water.
• Flavourings that suit the powder"Varying the flavouring ingredients" means dry or near-dry flavours: grated dried citrus zest, a few drops of essence of lemon, orange or raspberry worked into a little of the sugar and re-dried, or powdered ginger. Wet syrups and fresh juice will set the mixture off.
• Storage and quantity per glassKeep the finished powder in a small airtight jar or, as chemists once did, in folded paper packets. Reckon roughly two heaped teaspoons to a tumbler of cold water, stirred and drunk at once while it is still lively.