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Apricot Sorbet
1 can apricots 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup wine ¼ cup lemon juice 1 pint cream Drain apricots, and add to syrup the pulp rubbed through a sieve. Add sugar, wine, and lemon juice. Freeze to a mush, then fold in the whip obtained from cream. Let stand one and one-half hours, and serve in glasses.
Café Frappé White 1 egg 1/2 cup cold water 1/2 cup ground coffee 4 cups boiling water 1 cup sugar Beat white of egg slightly, add cold water, and mix with coffee; turn into scalded coffee-pot, add boiling water, and let boil one minute; place on back of range ten minutes; strain, add sugar, cool, and freeze same as Pineapple Frappé. Serve in frappé glasses, with whipped cream, sweetened and flavored.
Cranberry Frappé 1 quart cranberries 2 cups water 2 cups sugar Juice 2 lemons Cook cranberries and water eight minutes; then force through a sieve. Add sugar and lemon juice, and freeze to a mush, using equal parts of ice and salt. 4 cups water 2 cups sugar Grape Frappé 2 cups grape juice 2/3 cup orange juice ¼ cup lemon juice Prepare and freeze same as Pineapple Frappé.
Pomona Frappé 1½ cups sugar 1 quart sweet cider 4 cups water 2 cups orange juice 1/2 cup lemon juice Make a syrup by boiling sugar and water twenty minutes. Add cider, orange juice, and lemon juice. Cool, strain, and freeze to a mush. 20 clams Clam Frappé 1/2 cup cold water Wash clams thoroughly, changing water several times; put in stewpan with cold water, cover closely, and steam until shells open. Strain the liquor, cool, and freeze to a mush.
A late-Victorian "sorbet" in the American sense: a fruit ice lightened with whipped cream rather than a plain water ice. The method assumes a hand-cranked freezer packed with ice and salt, but it adapts to a machine or a still-frozen pan without much trouble.
- The lemon juiceThe quantity printed as "14 cup" is a quarter cup. That much acid is deliberate, since canned apricots in heavy syrup are cloying without it.
- The can of apricotsThe size is not given. A modern 15 to 16 oz can of halves in syrup is the practical substitute, though cans of the period were often larger. Both parts are used: the drained syrup becomes the base, and the fruit is pushed through a sieve into it. Modern cans are packed in juice as often as syrup, so taste before adding the full cup of sugar.
- The wineUnspecified here; sherry or Madeira would suit the style. Alcohol softens the freeze, so it is safer not to increase the half cup if you want the mixture to set firm.
- "Freeze to a mush"Churn or freeze only until the mixture is the texture of thick slush, not solid. The cream has to be folded in while there is still slack in it, and a fully frozen base will break the whip.
- The whip, not the cream"The whip obtained from cream" means the stiff foam skimmed off softly beaten cream, not the whole pint poured in. Whip the pint to soft peaks and fold in the light, airy portion; a little unwhipped liquid will remain in the bowl.
- Letting it standThe hour and a half is ripening: the mixture was left to firm up and let the flavours settle, in practice repacked in ice and salt. In a home freezer, an hour and a half in the coldest part, covered, does the same job.
- Yield and servingSomewhere between a quart and a half and two quarts once the cream is folded in. The recipe says only to serve it in glasses, and to serve it soft.
The chapter divides frozen desserts by texture as much as ingredient: water ices, frappes frozen only to a slush, sherbets, sorbets and ice creams were each, by the usual convention of the period, given their own expected consistency, though usage of the terms varied between books and even within them. A sorbet of this type, fruit puree lightened with whipped cream and spiked with wine, was often served midway through a formal dinner as a palate cleanser rather than as dessert. The reliance on canned apricots is characteristic of the period: California commercial canning had made the fruit widely available out of season by the end of the century, and cookbooks of the era treat a can of fruit as a perfectly respectable starting point for company food.