Sweets/Treats Lemon Ice Cream

lemon ice cream
(from Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, 1878)

Ingredients:

1 gallon rich cream​

6 lemons​

2-4 teacups of sugar​

Instructions:

One gallon rich cream, six lemons, first rubbed till soft, and then grated. Tie the yellow peel, which has been grated off, in a piece of coarse muslin. Cut each lemon in half and squeeze the juice from it. Strain the juice, and soak the muslin bag of lemon peel in it, squeezing it frequently till it becomes highly flavored and colored by it. Then add two teacups of sugar.​

​

In sweetening the cream, allow a teacup of sugar to each quart. Pour the juice into it slowly, carefully stirring. Froth and freeze, reserving a portion of cream to pour in as it sinks in freezing. - Mrs. S. T.​

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

That's an interesting recipe, thanks for sharing.

I always roll my lemons and limes back and froth on a firm surface a few times to help release the juices, it really does help.

 

[JOHN42768]

Lemon sherbet is nice, so why not ice cream?

 

[mofederal]

It sounds good to me, but I would have to substitute the sugar, which I am used too.

 

[amweiner]

That's an interesting recipe, thanks for sharing.

I always roll my lemons and limes back and froth on a firm surface a few times to help release the juices, it really does help.

You said it, @Anna Elizabeth Henry! I also warm the lemons up in the microwave for 10-20 seconds before rolling them. I can get a lot of juice that way.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

You said it, @Anna Elizabeth Henry! I also warm the lemons up in the microwave for 10-20 seconds before rolling them. I can get a lot of juice that way.

Hmm...I never though of microwaving them. I'm the paranoid person with the microwave always thinking certain things like a lemon would explode and make a huge mess, but if you've had success it must be safe. I'll have to give it a try next I need juice for baking or cooking! Thanks!

 

[donna]

I am careful with what I put in microwave. have had awful things happen. What messes I had to clean up. With my new microwave I am especially careful.

 

[Jimklag]

Now we're talking! Love lemon sherbet and lemon gelato!

 

[donna]

Another great ice cream recipe. For those who like lemon, this one to try.

 

[Pete Longstreet]

I love anything lemon! Too bad I'd never attempt this... I'll have to ask my girlfriend

 

[Shalom Hobbitess]

Hmm...I never though of microwaving them. I'm the paranoid person with the microwave always thinking certain things like a lemon would explode and make a huge mess,

Ten or twenty seconds is long enough to warm them a bit but not so long anything is likely to start boiling. Microwaves work by vibrating dipole molecules, and a lot of people think that since microwaves "target" water molecules, water heats faster than other substances. But it's more complicated than that -- it's got to do with a food's heat capacity, and the food's structure. For instance, you can't caramelize dry sugar in a microwave because its crystalline structure resists the vibrations microwaves heat with, while honey heats much faster than an equal amount of water, because it takes less added energy to heat honey, and because honey is in a liquid form that microwaves can vibrate easily.

Something in the food has to get good and hot in order for it to explode, which isn't likely to happen in ten or twenty seconds to something the size of a lemon that isn't sweet or fatty. There are two main challenges with microwaving. First is evenly cooking anything that's made of different parts (the skin versus the pulp with many fruits; the vegetables versus the meat in a casserole) that heat at different rates, which is not something you need to consider with regular ovens and stoves. And second is worrying about getting the inside hot enough without burning the outside, which is true pretty much whatever you heat your food with but can be doubly complicated with microwaves because of the heating at different rates thing.

 

[Fairfield]

In this area, lemon sherbet was served in between courses at those long, heavy formal dinners because it was believed to "cleanse the pallet". We have often served lemon ice cream at summer functions at the local historical society.