ICE ORANGEADE [a Sherbet]

1 and 1/2 pints orange juice
1/2 pint water
1/2 lb. powdered sugar
Six oranges

Take a pint and a half of orange juice, and mix it with half a pint of clear or filtered water. Stir in half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Pare very thin the yellow rind of six deep-colored oranges, cut in pieces, and lay it at the bottom of a bowl or tureen. Pour the orange juice and sugar upon it; cover it, and let it infuse an hour. Then strain the liquid into a freezer, and proceed as for ice cream. When it is frozen, put it into a mould, (it will look best in the form of a pine-apple), and freeze it a second time. Serve it in glass cups, with any sort of very nice sweet cakes.

From Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery by Eliza Leslie, 1851

Comment: Yes, indeed, they did have ice cream, sherbet and similar concoctions in the Civil War era, and well before. What they did not have was such items that we take entirely for granted today, like cheap orange juice, sugar sold in granulated form (in the 19th century it was normally sold in solid cones, from which the requisite amount was chipped and then grated or ground in a mortar to achieve crystalline form), and for that matter pure water on demand at every tap. This is clearly a recipe intended for the well-to-do, as only they were likely to have the above-mentioned items as well as the money to buy ice-cream freezers and the number of oranges required to squeeze a pint and a half of juice.

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