Ices: the Definitive Guide By Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir It takes either confidence or arrogance to call a book a 'definitive guide'. Thankfully, the authors of this one haven't overstated their case - this is an excellent guide to edible ice in all its incarnations: ice creams, sorbets, granitas, spooms, parfaits and bombes. The book starts with the history and origin of ice cream - not surprisingly, the earliest reports of the dish come from China. The book also has chapters on equipment, including types of freezer (although the authors state that all the recipes can be made without one), ingredients and the chemistry of ice cream. The text is interspersed with helpful tips (such as dealing with curdled custard), facts (it seems the great chef Auguste Escoffier detested intermezzo sorbet) and copies of old advertisements. The recipes are varied, imaginative and international: Persian saffron sa'alab (which uses the ground root of a type of orchid), orange flower water kulfi, Japanese red-bean ice cream, lychee-lime sorbet, Christmas cake ice cream, chestnut fudge ripple and blueberry buttermilk sherbet. There are savoury recipes, too, such as stilton ice cream, savoury pea with mint ice cream and black or red lumpfish caviar ice.
