Catching the Past "Water Ices"
- Dienece Darling
- 13 hours ago
- 9 min read
Following on from our blog last month which talked about a favourite confectionary shop of both the Georgian and Regency Period, The Pot and the Pineapple which later became Gunter's Tea Rooms (you can read about it here), we are going to talk about Ices! I.E. the dessert Gunter's Tea Rooms became so famous for.
I wanted to discuss all types of ices, but the blog was getting very long, and I ran out of time to make all the versions. So, we're just going to talk about 'Water Ices.'
So, what were ices?
That's actually depends! Ices could be used interchangeably to mean either cream based frozen desserts (think ice cream or frozen custard) or water based (sort of like icey poles or sorbet). It depends on who was talking and how they organized their cookbook.
Here is a general breakdown of what I found browsing through some cookbooks from the time period:
Ice cream, a frozen dessert made with cream and sometimes egg as well
Ices, could be the cream-based dessert or the water-based one.
Water Ices, a frozen dessert with water and clarified sugar as the base. It could even be a drink on occasions served like punch.
Ices (whether cream or water) were often made from fruits, jam, and syrups and frozen in moulds (e.g. molds for you Americans) because the ice cream churn wasn't invented until 1843!
Wait, how did they make Ices if they didn't have a churn?
Before the churn, creating ices required the confectioner to place the creation in a smaller, sealed container which was placed in a larger one full of salted ice (metal was the recommend material). Unskilled confectioners would then leave the ices until they set or only stirred it occasionally. A good confectioner knew they needed to stir the smaller container within the larger one constantly and/or sometimes take it out, break the seal, and stir the contents before putting the smaller container back in the larger one. The skill lay in knowing the right ratios of ingredients and when and how often to stir so that the texture came out nicely and the ices actually froze!
According to a website for Colonial Williamsburg, it took anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes for it to freeze. That is of course assuming you got the ratios right... (FYI, it was the later for me when I tried it. And yes, I made ices! More on that later.).
Instructions:
Taken from Robert Abbot's book THE HOUSEKEEPER’s VALUABLE PRESENT: OR, Lady’s Closet Companion. BEING A NEW AND COMPLETE ART OF PREPARING CONFECTS (sic), ACCORDING TO MODERN PRACTICE:
(Now, that's a mouthful! Aren't we glad people started making shorter titles?)
"Have ready a freezing pot in ice and salt; put in your ice cream, cover the pot, keep turning it till the water comes round the pot; then open it and scrape it down: continue turning it, and scraping it down as it freezes, till it becomes quite hard and smooth.
If an ice cream is mixed too rich, put in a little more cream: if it is poor, put in some more jam. If a water ice is mixed too rich, it will require some more water: if it is too poor, put in some clarified sugar.
If an ice is poor, the first time you scrape it down, it will feel quite rough and hard: on the contrary, if an ice is too rich, it will not freeze at all. (Yep, the ratios matter!)
All fruit ices that are put into the shapes of fruit, should have a paper round the moulds, just as you put them in the ice: let them lay in ice and salt for an hour.
N.B. (sic) Before you turn your ices out, take care to make the water come up the sides of the tub, and in turning them out, put your moulds just into hot water, and then out again; then the ice cream will come out easily.
N.B. (sic) All ices that are in the shape of fruit, should be coloured according to the fruit they represent."
Problems For Early Makers of "Ices"
In early Georgian times when ices first came to England, the biggest problem was getting the dessert to freeze all the way through. Not only because the freezer/ice cream churn hadn't been invented yet, but (as Abbot mentioned above) if you mucked up the ratio, it might not ever set. At first, they were much more concerned with it actually freezing and looking good, since it was to be the prestigious talking point it at a dinner party.
And speaking of looking impressive, ices were usually placed in a mould. Fruit shapes were popular (especially pineapple), and the ice creams were coloured to match the fruit shape of their mould.
Closer to the Regency period, confectioners began to dabble in texture and taste. Therefore, those who could make the dessert yummy, feel good in one's mouth, freeze properly, and look good were highly prized, hence the popularity of Gunter's Tea Room which could do all that!
A Selection of Water Ice* Recipes:
*In my next blog, I'll share some of the cream based ones
Last month, I shared a link to Frederick Nutt's confectionery cookbook published in 1807, but this month, here are some from his contemporary Robert Abbot, who also worked with Negri (the dude who started the shop which became Gunter's Tea Rooms). (FYI, Abbot's book is the one mentioned above with the epic-ly long title)
Orange Ice.
To half a pint of clarified sugar, allow the juice of five oranges, and two lemons: rasp the rind of two oranges, mix it all with a quarter of a pint of water, and pass it through a lawn.
Cedraty* Ice
*a large yellow citrus fruit grown throughout Southern Italy which Nutt says one ought to purchase from the Italian Warehouses
To a gill of cedraty essence, allow the juice of four lemons, a quarter of a pint of clarified sugar, and the same quantity of water, pass it through a lawn sieve.
Grape Ice.
Make a good lemon ice; then mix in a gill of grape essence, and pass it through a lawn sieve.
Rasberry Water. (sic)
To three quarters of a pound of jam, allow a pint and a quarter of water, and the juice of two lemons; pass it through a hair sieve, and colour it.
Currant Water.
Take a quart of fresh currants; rub them through a sieve, mix it with a quarter of a pint of clarified sugar, and the same quantity of water; then colour and strain it.
Cherry Ice.
Take a pound of morello, or Kentish cherries; bruise them in the mortar, strain them through a hair sieve, and mix the juice with a quarter of a pint of water, and the same quantity of clarified sugar, pass it through a lawn sieve, and colour it.
All water ices may be made of the fresh fruit in a similar manner; but if you make a water ice of jam, you must allow double the quantity of fruit, to what you allow in making cream ices.
Pear Ice.
Take four good mellow pears: rasp them, then mix it with the juice of four lemons, half a pint of clarified sugar, and a quarter of a pint of water; strain it through a sieve for use.
Clarified Sugar
Abbot used clarified sugar in just about everything! But Nutt's recipes listed either powdered sugar or just sugar. So, it depends on the cook.
But what is clarified sugar?
Well, I searched and search and nearly broke the internet. It didn't know what I wanted. The closest I could decide was that it was either some sugar syrup or white sugar. I decided to use white sugar for my recipe, but that wasn't quite right.
While browsing through Frederick Nutt's confectionery cookbook (the one I shared last month), I found the recipe for making clarified sugar. It is not simply white sugar, although you do use white sugar in the recipe. In fact, it's a whole lot of work, and could burn your house down if you weren't careful! (No, seriously, it actually says that in the recipe).
How to make Clarified sugar:
Take the egg whites of two eggs and fill a pot half full of water (what sized pot I might ask!) whisking all the while until you get 'soap suds' consistency (definitely not what I'd thought). Add two large loaves of sugar (this is where the white sugar comes in, but exactly how big is a large loaf? According to one source the common size was 14 pounds (6.4 kg), but they could go all the way up to 30 pounds or 13.6 kg. So, maybe the later? And if we need 26 kg of sugar, I'm guessing we'd need a REALLY big pot...). Stir until it is all melted and then stop stirring or your syrup won't be clear.
This is where the warning comes it, don't let it boil over into the fire or it could set your house on fire...
The recipe keeps going and going after this. If you'd like to know the rest, read it here. (Note, just under this recipe on page 115, Nutt explains how to make the essences as well)
Warning: If you have egg allergies, take care in eating any 'authentic' Regency dessert/sweetmeat recipes. Even Nutt who didn't prefer it in his ice cream recipes said clarified sugar was to be used for any sweetmeats. And Abbott used it for all sorts of things.
I made Regency ices!
I chose Abbot's recipe instead of Nutt's because it was a. simpler to understand, b. easier to do, and c. he actually called them ices instead of ice creams (not always, but most of the time).
Okay, so, I don't have the freezing pots. Nor did I want to spend a fortune on one. Nor am I crafty enough to make one! But I'd seen people using frozen baking trays. You freeze the tray for several hours and then mix the ice cream on it. Since Nutt said to keep turning the ice creams and stirring them, I thought this might be my best shot at cheaply recreating this idea.
While I wanted to try a LOT of different flavours, I have a character in my upcoming release A Heart to Treasure eating Lemon Ices. (There is a reason for that flavour, but you'll have to wait until the book comes out to discover why. And no, the book is not available for pre-order yet. Subscribers to my newsletter get to hear a lot about it though!)
Recipe
Lemon Ice
To half a pint of clarified sugar, allow the juice of six lemons, and the rind of one: mix it with a quarter of a pint of water, and pass it through a lawn sieve.
Translated recipe...
1 cup white sugar (this was before I learned what clarified sugar was), juice of six lemons, one lemon rind, and 1/2 cup water. Pass through a fine sieve or cheese cloth. (I have neither of those, so I made the peel one long piece I could pick out at the end)
Method
I put a non-stick cake tin in my freezer overnight (pretty sure this was a useless step).
Next, I mixed all the ingredients, but the sugar wasn't dissolving well enough. So, I put it over a low heat for a minute or two. Just until the liquid ran clear, which really didn't take long.
I removed the peel and probably should have let it sit for a bit before adding it to the frozen cake tin. Oh well...
I put the cake tin holding my 'ices' into the freezer for 5-minute intervals, taking it out and stirring it with a spatula spoon. I did this 4 times before I got sick of that and started doing 10 minutes. 10-minute intervals worked much better. :)
I did 6 ten-minute intervals of freezing then stirring. It was very close to being set before I got called away for 40 minutes. It was quite set when I came back (think icy pole consistency).
I then mixed it, whisked it briefly, before returning to mixing it with a spoon for a nice soft texture, but it started to melt.
I quickly started putting some in the rose mould tray and returned them to the freezer. (Sadly, I did not think to colour them!)
It took over an hour before the tiny moulds started to feel firm, but the mould did not come out cleanly. Leaving it for several hours did not improve the results.
Running the base of the mould tray under cool water for a very brief moment did work! I finally got good roses to pop out. (See image above. The one below is minus the roses)
Final results
It turns out white. Its texture is actually much more pleasant than I thought, like an icy pole not quite a sorbet. Sorbet is creamier and has less of an aftertaste. It's stiff at first, but a little working over makes it smooth and soft. But it melts quickly even on an average tempeture day.
It tasted like the lemonade of my childhood (for Aussie's that non-fizzy lemonade), a very STRONG lemonade. Lemon ices pack quite a punch with a lingering taste, and I do mean lingering! It was very more-ish even though tang was quite sharp.
Hint: The longer it sits in the freezer, the stiffer and icier it gets. Which makes it colder and actually less tangy if you want relief from a hot day, but it's not as pleasing a texture. A stir will fix that. However, it melts REALLY fast, so don't over work it.
Resource Notes:
David, Elizabeth. English Bread and Yeast Cookery. Middlesex: Penguin, 1977 (p. 139) for size of sugar loaves
Abbot's cookbook https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58663/58663-h/58663-h.htm#Page_79
Clarified Sugar: https://archive.org/details/b33028990/page/114/mode/2up?view=theater
Ice Cream and Colonial Williamsburg (with pictures!)
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