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Lemon Ice
Place in a bowl half pound granulated sugar, one quart lukewarm water; squeeze in the juice of three medium, sound lemons, the grated rind of one lemon and the white of an egg. Briskly mix with a wooden spoon for five minutes. Strain through a Chinese strainer into a small ice-cream freezer. Cover the freezer, place in a tub with broken ice mixed with rock salt all round; then freeze for thirty-five minutes.
A plain water ice from the era of the hand-cranked bucket freezer. It scales and churns easily in modern equipment, with two things worth knowing: the sugar level is low by current standards, and the egg white goes in raw.
- Measurements in modern termsHalf a pound of granulated sugar is about 1 1/8 cups (227 g); a quart of water is 4 cups. Three medium lemons give roughly 3/8 to 1/2 cup of juice, so taste and add a fourth if yours are dry.
- The raw egg whiteThe white is there for texture, not flavour — it holds air and softens the ice crystals — and it is never heated. Use a pasteurised egg white from a carton, or leave it out and accept a harder, more granular ice.
- Chinese strainerA chinois, the conical fine-mesh strainer. Any fine sieve works; the point is to catch pips, pulp and any unbeaten strands of white before churning.
- Sugar and textureAbout 227 g of sugar to a quart of water is a lean syrup by modern sorbet practice, which usually runs closer to 25–30 percent sugar by weight. Expect a firm, icy, granita-like result rather than a scoopable sorbet; adding another 50–100 g of sugar gives a softer set.
- Dissolving the sugarLukewarm water and five minutes of brisk stirring are the whole of the method here — there is no cooked syrup. Make sure no sugar is sitting undissolved at the bottom of the bowl before straining, or the finished ice will be flat at the top and cloying at the base.
- Ice and rock saltThe old bucket freezer works on roughly three parts crushed ice to one part rock salt by volume, packed around the canister and topped up as it melts. Thirty-five minutes of steady cranking is about right for that setup.
- Modern equipmentIn a compressor or frozen-bowl machine, chill the mixture thoroughly first and churn 20–30 minutes, then firm it in the freezer for an hour. Without a machine, freeze in a shallow pan and rake with a fork every 30 minutes for about three hours.
- YieldA little over a quart of finished ice, enough for six to eight small glasses. Water ices of this kind were served in stemmed glasses, often between courses rather than as dessert.
The International Cook Book (1906) was compiled by Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and its water ices belong squarely to the French-influenced restaurant repertoire of the period rather than to home baking. A glace or ice of this type — nothing but water, sugar, fruit juice and a little egg white — is the oldest and simplest form of frozen dessert in European cookery, generally traced to Italian and then French confectioners well before dairy ice creams became common. In a formal dinner of Filippini's day such an ice was as likely to appear mid-meal, as a palate cleanser before the roast, as it was at the end, and the hand-cranked bucket freezer packed with ice and rock salt was standard equipment in any establishment kitchen and a good many domestic ones.