Lemon Ice

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •1-quart saucepan
• •Sharp vegetable peeler or paring knife
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •1.5-quart ice-cream machine or shallow stainless-steel pan
• •Refractometer, optional

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the cold syrup

   Put the sugar and water in a small saucepan and warm them gently, stirring only until the liquid turns completely clear and no crystals remain. Do not boil the syrup down; the aim is about 1 pint (2 cups / 480 ml / about 605 g), not a reduction. Cool it to room temperature, then refrigerate until thoroughly cold, about 4°C. The classical kitchen kept this syrup ready by the bucket; one cook needs only this panful.

   If the syrup boiled and finished below the 2-cup mark, add enough cold water to restore the volume before chilling. Ça se rattrape.
2. 2

   Lift the lemon zest

   Wash and dry the lemons. With a sharp vegetable peeler, remove the zest from three of them in broad, thin strips. Zest means the glossy yellow film alone. Turn over every strip and inspect it; if any white pith clings underneath, shave it away with a small knife before it reaches the syrup.

3. 3

   Infuse for three hours

   Submerge the three lemons' zest in the fully cold syrup, cover, and refrigerate for exactly three hours. Keep the infusion cold from beginning to end. Heat would pull harshness from the peel, while the patient cold steep captures its perfume. If a strip carrying pith escaped inspection and the syrup begins tasting bitter, strain it immediately and continue chilling it without the zest. Ça se rattrape.

4. 4

   Add the citrus juice

   After the three-hour infusion, juice all four lemons and both oranges. Add their juices to the syrup, then strain the whole mixture through a fine sieve into a cold jug. Press the zest only lightly; wringing it out extracts the very bitterness the cold infusion was meant to avoid.

5. 5

   Verify the balance

   The strained mixture should register about 22° Baumé, approximately 39 to 40 Brix on a modern refractometer. The measured syrup and expected juice yield place it close without requiring the old pèse-sirop. Without an instrument, taste the base well chilled: it should seem a little sweeter and more forcefully acidic than you want at the table, because freezing softens both impressions. Refrigerate it for another 30 minutes if squeezing and straining have allowed it to warm.

6. 6

   Churn until finely frozen

   Pour the cold base into the prepared ice-cream machine and churn until it becomes opaque, finely grained, and firm enough to hold the track of the paddle, usually 20 to 30 minutes. If it remains loose and slushy, the bowl or base was too warm. Stop, return both to the cold, and begin again once properly chilled; don't keep churning a warm mixture and hope it will surrender.

7. 7

   Firm and serve

   Pack the glace au citron into a chilled, shallow container, press parchment directly against the surface, cover, and freeze for at least two hours. Let it stand in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before scooping if it has hardened fully. Serve in cold glasses or small bowls, with nothing scattered over its clean surface. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose firm, heavy citrus with glossy, fragrant skins. Waxed fruit can be scrubbed under warm water and dried well, but untreated peel gives the clearest perfume when it can be found.
• •Broad strips are better than finely grated zest here. They strain cleanly after three hours and make it easy to see whether any white pith has slipped into the infusion.
• •A refractometer is useful, not compulsory. The source's 22° reading describes density on the old syrup scale; approximately 39 to 40 Brix is its practical modern equivalent.
• •Without an ice-cream machine, pour the mixture into a shallow stainless-steel pan and freeze it, whisking vigorously every 30 minutes until evenly frozen. The texture will be more crystalline, but the cold infusion and citrus balance remain sound. Cooking well is not cooking fancy.
• •For a picnic, freeze the glace in a prechilled lidded metal container and carry it in a cooler packed tightly on every side with frozen blocks. Keep the cooler shaded and soften the glace only when everyone is ready to eat.

Advance Preparation

• •If the machine uses a freezer bowl, freeze it according to its instructions, generally for at least 12 hours, before beginning.
• •The cold syrup can be prepared up to one week ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator.
• •After the citrus juice is added, the strained base can remain refrigerated for up to 12 hours before churning.
• •The finished glace keeps well covered for one week. Press parchment against its surface to limit coarse ice crystals, then temper it in the refrigerator before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 153g)