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Sherbets with Champagne
Mix one-fourth pint of champagne with one pint of syrup, and add the juice of one lemon and two sweet oranges, also the thinly-peeled rind of the lemon. In a quarter of an hour strain the mixture through a fine hair-sieve and give it eighteen degrees at the syrup scale. Turn the sherbet into a freezer, and work it with a spatula until set; then mix with it by degrees one-fourth pint more of champagne that has been stirred in with a little syrup. Serve the sherbet in ice glasses.
A professional ice from a hotel kitchen, written for cooks who owned a saccharometer and a hand-crank freezer. Two things need translating: the sugar reading and the late addition of champagne.
- The syrup scale"Eighteen degrees at the syrup scale" is a hydrometer reading, almost certainly Baume, the usual sugar measure in professional kitchens of the period. Eighteen degrees Baume is roughly 33 Brix, about a third sugar by weight, which sits within the range normally given for sorbets; a stock syrup of one part sugar to two parts water by weight lands close to it. Without a hydrometer or refractometer the reading cannot be reproduced exactly, so treat it as a target rather than a formula.
- Why the sugar is measured at allSugar and alcohol both depress the freezing point. The density is set before freezing so the mixture will take, and the second charge of champagne goes in only after the ice is set; adding it all at the start would give a slacker, softer result.
- Pints and quartersA quarter pint is half a cup, 4 fl oz; a pint is 2 cups. The base is therefore 2 cups syrup, 4 oz champagne and the citrus juice, with another 4 oz champagne stirred in at the end.
- The rindPeel the lemon thinly so no white pith goes in, and give it the full quarter hour of infusion before straining, which is what the recipe specifies.
- Hair sieveA fine horsehair sieve was the standard fine strainer of the period, and was often preferred for acidic mixtures over the metal wares then available. Any fine nylon or stainless strainer does the job now.
- "Turn into a freezer"This is the sorbetière — a canister packed in ice and salt, worked by hand. A domestic ice cream machine covers it; the spatula work described is what the dasher does for you.
- The champagne finishFold the second 4 oz in slowly with the machine running, or by hand at the end, and expect the texture to loosen. Serve it straight away or hold it briefly; the alcohol keeps it soft and it will not hold a scoop for long in the freezer.
- YieldSomething over three cups of liquid before freezing, more once churned; in the small glasses intended that is several modest servings.
Oscar Tschirky's book came out of the Waldorf in the 1890s, when a frozen ice partway through a long dinner was standard practice in hotel and club dining rooms -- the sorbet or Roman punch course, served between the heavier courses to clear the palate before the roast. Champagne sherbets belong squarely to that slot, and the "ice glasses" of the last line would be the small stemmed cups used for such ices. The instruction to set the syrup at eighteen degrees on the syrup scale points to professional practice: the saccharometer was ordinary equipment in a hotel pastry department, and much less common in a home kitchen.