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Ginger Frappé
1/2 cup molasses 1 quart water Dissolve the molasses in the water; add the lemon juice and ginger and freeze to a soft mush. 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
The ingredient list has been scrambled by the original two-column typesetting; read it as 1/2 cup molasses, 1 quart water, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger. It is a water ice with no dairy and no egg, so the only real technique is controlling the ice crystals.
- Sugar content is the hingeHalf a cup of molasses in a quart of water is a very lean syrup by frozen-dessert standards, which is why the recipe stops at "a soft mush" rather than a firm ice. Frozen hard it will set to a solid block; serve it the moment it reaches slush, or hold it no more than an hour.
- "Freeze to a soft mush"The original assumed a hand-crank freezer packed with ice and rock salt, which churns constantly and reaches slush quickly. In an ice cream machine, run it about 15 minutes and stop early. Without a machine, freeze in a shallow metal pan and rake it with a fork every 20 minutes for about two hours.
- Which molassesUse unsulphured cane molasses, not blackstrap and not the modern "robust" style, both of which are bitter enough to dominate a mixture this thin. Sorghum syrup is a reasonable period-appropriate substitute.
- Bloom the gingerPowdered ginger will not dissolve in water and settles as grit. Warm a cup of the water with the ginger and molasses to help it disperse and infuse, then add the remaining cold water and the lemon juice off the heat.
- Lemon juice lastAdd it after the mixture has cooled; acid added to a hot mixture is generally held to dull the fresh top note that keeps molasses from tasting flat.
- A pinch of saltNot in the original, but a scant 1/8 teaspoon sharpens molasses considerably. At this quantity its effect on the freezing point is negligible.
- Yield and servingA little over a quart, enough for six small glasses. Frappés of this period were often served in a stemmed glass, spooned rather than scooped, and sometimes appeared between courses rather than as dessert.
Frappé is French for "iced" or "chilled" (from frapper, to strike), and in American cookbooks of the early twentieth century it named a water ice deliberately frozen only to slush, meant to be spooned or drunk. Molasses as the sweetener rather than refined sugar places this in the household economy of the era: molasses was cheap, kept well, and appeared in everything from gingerbread to baked beans, while granulated sugar was the costlier choice. The pairing with powdered ginger follows the same logic as ginger beer and the old molasses-and-ginger "switchel" carried into hayfields, a combination generally traced to the West Indian sugar and spice trade that supplied both.