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RHUBARB SHERBET (a wholesome and refreshing beverage)
Take as much young rhubarb, which has been cut into short lengths, as will measure half a pint. Boil this in a quart of water for twenty minutes, strain the liquor through muslin, and sweeten with five or six large lumps of sugar, which have been rubbed upon the rind of a small lemon until the flavour has been extracted. Stir the sherbet till the sugar is dissolved, and serve when quite cold. Sufficient for a quart of sherbet. Probable cost, 2d. per pint.
A rhubarb infusion rather than a frozen sherbet — in Victorian usage "sherbet" still meant a sweetened fruit drink. The whole thing hangs on straining the liquor clear and sweetening it while hot enough to dissolve the sugar.
- The measurementRhubarb is measured by volume, not weight: enough cut lengths to fill a half-pint measure. The original's half-pint is imperial, so about 1¼ US cups, roughly 4-5 oz of trimmed stalk; the imperial quart of water is closer to 5 US cups than 4, so err generous if you want it mild.
- Stalks onlyUse the pink stalks and discard the leaves entirely — rhubarb leaves carry oxalic acid and related compounds at levels that make them unfit to eat or infuse. Trim any leaf base off the top of each stalk before cutting.
- Lump sugar and the lemon"Large lumps" were pieces cut from a sugar loaf, roughly comparable to a modern cube though sizes varied, so five or six is a restrained amount by modern taste. Rubbing them on the zest was a standard way of extracting citrus oil before microplanes existed; a cube of granulated sugar rubbed over the lemon does the same job, or use 1 tsp finely grated zest with the same sugar.
- Twenty minutes is rightUnlike many old boiling times, this one is not excessive: the point is to break the stalk down so the liquor takes on colour and acidity.
- StrainingMuslin is a fine cheesecloth; two layers, or a jelly bag, and let it drip rather than pressing. Squeezing the pulp pushes fibre and starch through and clouds the sherbet.
- Sweeten hot, serve coldThe recipe has you stir the sherbet until the sugar dissolves and serve it "quite cold"; adding the sugar while the strained liquor is still warm makes it dissolve more easily. Then chill thoroughly.
- YieldAbout a quart, or four tumblers. It keeps two or three days covered in the refrigerator; adjust sweetness before serving, as chilling mutes it.
Before "sherbet" in English came to mean an ice, it meant what the word originally described — a cool sweetened fruit drink, from the Arabic sharbat, a cousin of syrup and sorbet, brought into English vocabulary through Ottoman and Persian usage in the seventeenth century. It belongs with the household drinks a Victorian cook made in quantity for invalids, nurseries and hot afternoons. Rhubarb suited the purpose because it was the first thing the kitchen garden produced in any volume: forced under pots from late winter, abundant and nearly free by spring, and valued as much for being cooling and "wholesome" as for its flavour. The costing of 2d. per pint is the giveaway that this was economy, not luxury.