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Orange Punch
Place in a basin half pound granulated sugar and one quart lukewarm water. Squeeze out the juice of two each lemons and oranges, add the grated rind of one orange and briskly mix with a wooden spoon for five minutes. Strain through a Chinese strainer into a small ice-cream freezer, cover the freezer, bury in a tub with broken ice and rock salt and freeze for thirty-five minutes. Divide into six sherbet glasses and serve.
A water ice rather than a drink: the sugar syrup is churned in a salted ice bath until it sets to a soft, spoonable sorbet. Nothing here is difficult, but the sugar ratio and the churn are what decide whether you get sorbet or a block of orange ice.
- Weights and volumesHalf a pound of granulated sugar is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (225 g); one quart of water is 4 cups (950 ml). The proportion works out near 19 percent sugar before the citrus juice, which is what keeps the finished ice soft enough to scoop.
- Chinese strainerA chinois — the fine conical mesh strainer. Any fine sieve does the job; the point is to catch pulp, seeds and the grated zest so the ice is smooth on the tongue.
- The five minutes of stirringThis is not decorative. The sugar must be fully dissolved in the lukewarm water before freezing, or it settles out and the bottom of the ice turns syrupy while the top freezes hard. Stir until no grit remains on the spoon.
- The salt-and-ice bathRock salt lowers the melting point of the ice so the brine drops well below freezing. Ratios in use vary; something in the region of one part salt to six or eight parts crushed ice by volume is a common working mixture. Keep the brine drained down below the lid so none gets into the mixture.
- In a modern machineChill the strained liquid thoroughly first, then churn in an ice-cream maker for 20 to 30 minutes. Without a machine, freeze in a shallow pan and rake with a fork every 30 minutes for about three hours for a granita texture.
- Thirty-five minutesThat figure assumes a hand-cranked freezer turning steadily in fresh brine. Judge by texture instead: it is done when the mixture holds a soft mound on the spoon. Left longer it sets solid and needs 10 minutes at room temperature before serving.
- ZestGrate only the colored layer of one orange. Any white pith carried through will make the ice faintly bitter, and unwaxed fruit is worth seeking out since the peel goes into the mix.
- YieldSix sherbet glasses, as stated — roughly a quart and a third of liquid before freezing, which loses a little volume to straining.
Filippini's book comes out of the Delmonico's tradition, where a frozen "punch" was a course, not a beverage. Through the nineteenth century a sweetened, often spirited water ice was served midway through a long dinner to clear the palate before the roast — punch à la Romaine being the best-known example, and the one famously served aboard the Titanic. This version has no rum or wine folded in: sugar, water, lemon and orange only. The instruction to bury the canister in broken ice and rock salt dates the recipe as firmly as anything in it; commercial ice delivery made frozen desserts routine in American kitchens decades before mechanical refrigeration reached the home.