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Orange Water Ice
6 oranges, juice only 2 teaspoons orange extract 1 lemon, juice only 1 quart water 2 cups powdered sugar 1/2 cup cream Mix all ingredients together; strain and freeze.
A simple juice-and-syrup ice, but two details in the wording will mislead a modern cook: the sugar and the freezing method.
- "Powdered sugar"In American books of this era this generally meant a finer-ground sugar than today's granulated, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold under that name now. Ordinary granulated sugar is a safe substitute; 2 cups is about 14 oz by weight.
- Dissolve the sugar firstThe recipe says only to mix, but sugar stirred cold into juice and water will sit gritty at the bottom. Warm a cup of the water with the sugar until clear, then add the rest cold and chill thoroughly before churning.
- "Freeze" means a churnIn a kitchen of this period this meant a hand-crank freezer packed with cracked ice and rock salt, commonly around three parts ice to one part salt, cranked until set. Any modern ice cream machine does the same job; without one, freeze in a shallow pan and rake with a fork every 30 minutes for a granita texture.
- Go easy on the extractTwo teaspoons of present-day orange extract will taste medicinal. Start with half a teaspoon, or better, rasp the zest of two of the oranges into the hot syrup and strain it out.
- The half cup of creamBy the looser usage of the period this pushes the dish toward sherbet rather than a true water ice. The little fat present slightly softens the texture; leave it out and expect something harder and sharper.
- Straining mattersCitrus pulp and membrane freeze into tough flecks. Strain through a fine sieve, and add the cream after straining so none is left behind.
- Sugar and textureDo not cut the sugar much below the given amount. It is what keeps the ice scoopable; a leaner syrup freezes rock solid.
- YieldCloser to 2 quarts, serving eight to ten in small glasses. Let it firm up an hour in the freezer after churning.
Water ices were the plainest branch of the frozen dessert family: fruit juice, sugar, water, no eggs and no custard, which made them cheap for a household with a churn, ice and rock salt. The addition of half a cup of cream here nudges the dish toward sherbet, a distinction American cookbooks of the period observed loosely. The New Royal Cook Book was published by the Royal Baking Powder Company to promote its own products. Recipes of this kind also depended on the commercial ice trade, which by the 1920s was putting block ice into many city kitchens and making a quart of orange ice a more ordinary possibility than it had once been.