Make Sorbet in a Pewter Pot

Take about one pound of blackcurrants, an old recipe book, and work a simple bit of magic.     Four or five hours later you can be enjoying this...

Blackcurrant sorbet!

There are lots of recipes out there but I just tweaked one that is in an old handwritten recipe book.   I don't have the name of the woman who wrote all the recipes, alas!     I think she would be amazed to think that someone is still reading and enjoying her collection almost two hundred years later.


How to freeze
The freezing pot is to be of pewter and should be 3 times as large as the quantity you want to freeze also have a large tub enough to admit of 4 inches of ice between the sides of the tub and pewter pot which is to be placed in the middle the ice to be well pounded and mixed with salt.

I used my freezer, but you could use an ice cream maker.

Mash the currants and strain the juice through a flannel bag.  Make a syrup and add it to the juice.  Freeze.

Basic!   I used:  

1 lb blackcurrants, 6  oz sugar and a cup of water, juice of one lemon.     Unlike the woman who wrote the recipe,  I cooked the blackcurrants very gently in a tiny amount of water, just until they were soft and squidgy, then I pushed them through a sieve to remove the seeds - easier than trying to find a flannel bag.   

While that was cooling, I made a light syrup from the water and sugar and then let that cool down, too.   

Mix the blackcurrant juice and syrup together, along with the lemon juice,  then pour it all into a lidded airtight container which can be put into the freezer.      Wait a couple of hours, then remove it from the freezer and break up the ice crystals with a fork, mix together, then re-freeze.   Do this again an hour or so later.    

Perfect for a meltingly hot summer's day.

Last summer I made a blackcurrant leaf sorbet - using young blackcurrant leaves, lemon, water, sugar.   It had a fabulous flavour.  Well worth trying.