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Strawberry Water Ice
Press enough ripe strawberries through a fine sieve, leaving the pits behind, to make i pint of juice. To this add 3 pints of water, 2 pounds of sugar and the juice of 2 lemons (see that the sugar is fully dissolved), then strain through a fine sieve or cloth and freeze.
A straightforward fountain-style water ice: fruit juice, water, sugar, a little acid, frozen. The proportions are sound, and the only real decisions are how finely you strain and how you freeze it.
- "Pits" means seedsStrawberries have no stones; the book is using "pits" loosely for the achenes on the surface. Pressing through a fine sieve, then straining a second time as instructed, leaves a clear juice with no gritty specks.
- YieldOne pint juice, three pints water and two pounds of sugar make roughly two and a half quarts of finished ice — about 20 half-cup servings, or a dozen generous fountain portions.
- The sugar is structuralTwo pounds in four pints works out at close to a third sugar by weight, which is what keeps a water ice scoopable rather than a solid block. Cutting it back sharply will give you something closer to a fruit-flavoured ice cube.
- Dissolve it cold, or make a syrupThe parenthetical warning is the hinge of the recipe. Undissolved sugar settles out in the freezer and the top of the batch freezes hard while the bottom stays syrupy. Stirring two pounds into cold water takes patience; heating a portion of the water into a syrup and cooling it before adding the strawberry juice is quicker and does not cook the fruit flavour.
- The lemon is not optionalTwo lemons in two and a half quarts is doing acid-balance work, not adding lemon flavour. Strawberries lose definition once frozen and sweetened, and the acid is what keeps the fruit tasting like fruit.
- Freezing"Freeze" in a book of this kind would have meant a hand-crank or brine freezer — a churned ice, not a still-frozen one. Any modern ice cream machine handles this volume in two or three batches. Without a machine, freeze in a shallow pan and rake with a fork every 30 minutes for a granita texture; the result will be coarser than intended.
- Straining after mixingThe final strain through sieve or cloth catches pulp and any undissolved sugar crystals, and it matters more here than in a cream ice — there is no fat to mask the texture. A jelly bag or a double layer of muslin is the finer option.
- KeepingWater ices set up hard and icy in a home freezer within a day. Serve within a few hours of churning, or let it temper 10 to 15 minutes before scooping.
A "water ice" in the American fountain trade meant exactly what it says: fruit, sugar, water and acid, with no milk, cream or egg, distinguishing it from ice cream and from the sherbets that carried a little dairy or gelatine. The form descends from the Italian and French ices that reached America through confectioners in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the soda fountain is generally credited with turning it into a daily, cheap counter item rather than a luxury. Strawberry was a common fountain flavour, and the fruit was abundant in season and its juice needed no cooking. Recipes of this kind were written for a proprietor working in gallons behind a counter, which is why the quantities scale so cleanly and why the only real instruction given is to be sure the sugar has gone into solution.