ELEANOR BARNETT samples the delights of an unusual and refreshing version of one of the world’s favourite summer treats
RECIPE
As the weather heats up, it’s time to cool down with an ice cream. Our favourite summer treat originated from the sweet cool drinks known as ‘sherbets’ made since medieval times in the Middle East, which Italians froze into a dessert in the 17th century, the name Italianised to ‘sorbetti’.
Before the advent of artificial refrigeration, ice or snow kept drinks cold, but these were costly and perishable materials. By the mid-16th century European scientists had worked out that adding saltpetre to the ice or snow lowered the temperature to below freezing, and a vessel of liquid could be frozen if placed in it. Antonio Latini, a steward who worked in some of the most elite Italian kitchens of the day, included recipes for strawberry, chocolate, aubergine and pine nut-flavoured sorbets in his 1692–94 cookery book. With the addition of sweetened dairy (along with candied citron or squash), Latini’s milk sorbet is recognised as the first true ice cream.
For this month’s recipe we’re going to skip ahead in time to the Book of Ices by Victorian celebrity chef Agnes Marshall. Like Latini, Marshall made ice cream in a whole host of surprising flavours that have long since gone out of fashion. Cucumber might seem an odd choice to our modern sensibilities, but the flavour is wonderfully refreshing and creamy. It’s easy to see how, with the addition of a vibrant green food colouring and a dash of flavourful ginger brandy, Marshall got her nickname the ‘Queen of Ices’.
Marshall was an excellent business woman who built a culinary empire. She sold elaborate ice cream moulds to go along with her recipes, including a cucumber shaped one, as well as Marshall-branded cooking ingredients like baking powder, gelatine and food colouring. In 1883 she opened her own cookery school in London, going on to lecture on the importance of food hygiene.
The recipe below would have been made in a wooden hand-cranked ice cream maker. Marshall sold her own patented version, which was shallow and wide so that the mixture in the bowl could freeze faster against the salt and ice that surrounded it. The inner bowl was turned using a handle, and the Victorian cook would then have set the churned mixture in an ice cave or box, a metal container within a wooden chest filled
