CUCUMBER ICE CREAM

1 large cucumber 230g/8oz caster sugar 285ml/½ pint water 3 tbsp ginger wine, or 2 tbsp ginger brandy

Juice 2 lemons

Green food colouring 570 ml/1 pint whipping or double cream

A few blackcurrants and their leaves, and fern sprigs, to garnish (optional)

PEEL the cucumber, halve it lengthways, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and discard them. Chop it into chunks and put it in a saucepan with half the sugar and all the measured water.

Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until the cucumber is tender (15 minutes).

Purée the mixture in a blender. Add the ginger wine or brandy, the lemon juice and a little green food colouring — you want it to be pleasantly green, not scarily fluorescent. Chill the mixture. Whip the cream and remaining sugar in a large bowl to form soft peaks. Fold in the chilled cucumber mix, then put it into an ice-cream maker and churn until it is stiff.

If you want to mould it, spoon it into a plain mould and freeze until you are ready to turn it out.

The Victorians would have garnished it with spun sugar, chilled fruits in syrup, or a maidenhair fern sprig. We’ve added blackcurrants and leaves.

To make iced desserts, Mrs Crocombe would have used a sorbetière and bucket, or a handcranked freezing pail. Both methods relied on ice and salt, packed around a pewter freezing pot (salt lowers the temperature of ice, reducing its melting point). It could easily get to below -20c — colder than most freezers.

You can still make it this way: use a plastic bowl of crushed ice and salt, with a metal-lidded coffee caddy as the freezing pail. You can also put it straight into the freezer, stirring every 10–15 minutes.