"Lemon" ice

Growing up in an Italian neighborhood in North Jersey, we had the greatest Italian Ice around. We,however called it "lemon Ice" Maybe at one time,it only came in that one flavor. By the mid 50's there were a few other flavors. For example,my little sister would order a chocolate"Lemon" Ice...etc.
Today we have chains that sell "water" ice like Ritas and places around here called Ralph's that sell something closer to what we remember as "Lemon Ice" with the little pieces of lemon rind right in the ice.
Sometimes the Italian ice was called "Yum-Yum" in north Jersey...
What ever you call it,do you roadfooders remember good old fashioned Italian Ice (Lemon Ice)...and where can you get the REAL thing these days???? Post your favorite Italian Ice places.

The Lemon Ice King of Corona (Queens New York).

http://www.thirteen.org/queens/sites7.html

It's also only a short walk from Mama's.

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/invoke.cfm?label=artisans%3A%2Ddairy%2Dqueens

Hey,kozel,that's what I was talking about. That's the real thing....see,they did call it "Lemon Ice"

In Jersey City we had Kay's Nut Shoppe on central Ave. they had Italian ice--lemon, chocolate, vanilla yum yum & prob a flavor or 2 more. Man--that was the best--makes my mouth water thinking about it. Homemade--great stuff!

Around New Haven the Libby's truck went to all the local church fairs in the summer, LOVED the chocolate ice..

Hey, Joisey,
I grew up in Union City in the 50's and walked both Central and Summit avenues so very often. Also used to be two grand old Ice Cream Parlors on central area. I think they were Meyers and Schoners. Yes that is also Lemon Ice Heaven up there...and Yum Yum!!!

The Angelo Brocato family in New Orleans have run an ice cream parlor since the early 1900's. In addition to the shop, they sell their strawberry and lemon ice by the pint in a couple of local grocery stores, but I have to say their cannoli and Italian fig cookies were my favorite over lemon ice.

Hey Lee--i grew up in the heights in the 60's-70's--there were 2 ice cream parlors --Meyer's & Sohls (by Congress st)--man--those were the dayz! Sohls made their own ice cream--they had a lemon ice cream that was to die for. meyers' was the place you ended up after shopping on Central Ave on a Saturday afternoon--burger, lime soda & ice cream!

Joisy,
I asked this question on another topic. Do you remeber "soft-cream" I believe Meyers made it...NOT soft custard or soft serve...but a softer, wetter icecream. I loved it on bananas. NO ONE else seems to remember it!

In my old neighborhood we had a lemon ice truck that would come once in a while. It was only lemon ice but that was enough. He did better than the ice cream man.

lee--can't say that I do, but i will ask my mom & sister--they may remember it.

At the 6 Flags-Great Adventure Theme Park in Jackson, NJ, one of the work locations that drew the most employee injuries each season were the Italian Ice Carts around the park. They sold scoops of 'Cherry' and 'Lemon' Ice as fast as they could scoop the cups ! The two injuries that were common...several every day, were (1) Bee Stings from the little Yellowjacket Bees and (2) what later would be called "Carpal Tunnel Syndrome" (this was in the early 70's). I was amazed at how many of those cups we sold in a typical summer day !

If you go back to my Trip Report on the visit to FREDDIES in Berwyn, IL last Fall, we have photos of the many flavors of both GELATO and ITALIAN ICE available from that wonderful place to eat.

I love gelato and am not sure I'd even try Italian ice if offered a choice. Am I missing out on something.

My gelato headquarters is Libby's in New Haven ... I wonder if they have both?

quote:

Originally posted by leethebard

Growing up in an Italian neighborhood in North Jersey, we had the greatest Italian Ice around. We,however called it "lemon Ice" Maybe at one time,it only came in that one flavor. By the mid 50's there were a few other flavors. For example,my little sister would order a chocolate"Lemon" Ice...etc.

Like we used to say, "How much you wanna make a five dollar bet? How much?"

In Paterson, we used to go to Carlos'. He scooped ices out of the freezer in his garage. You didn't have to ask for lemon: "Gimme an ice." He was crusty and old and we felt we were bothering him. An ice from Carlos was the highlight of any kid's day.

A good ice would fit into an ice cream tour of New Jersey, which there is talk about.

Carlos's place sounds like it was great. Great Ice is so rare these days

In Old Lyme CT, the Vecchitto's lemon ice truck would show up at the beach. Smooth and creamy and just perfect. We kids would chew on the paper cup it came in after it was gone to extract every atom of flavor. I almost always got lemon. Chocolate was pretty good too.

They had a stand in Soundview, a little ways down the shore but still in Old Lyme. And their main shop was in Middletown, right off of Route 9, you could see it as you drove by on the way to visit Uncle Joe at the home.

I wonder if they still exist... a flavor memory from childhood so intense nothing could possibly taste as good. Maybe it was the salt and sand stuck on the outside of the paper cup as you chewed on it.

When I was a kid, we'd get it at the corner candy store, where it was called Lemon Slush and only sold in the summer or at a small market with the best hoagies called The Italian Village. Except for Rita's, etc., the Lehigh Valley is a wasteland for real Italian Ice so I have made my own for many years.

LEMON WATER ICE

1 quart water
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unstrained fresh lemon juice
Grated rind of 1 lemon (no white part)

Boil water and sugar together for 5 minutes. Cool. Stir in juice. Pour into bowl and put in freezer. As it starts to freeze, keep stirring the outside crystals into the center and mix in peel. Do about every half hour. When real slushy, stop and freeze overnight. To serve, you must scrape very thin layers of the slush off the top. I use a big spoon with sharp edges moving it sideways.

My notes: This won’t turn out unless you do both the stirring thing and the scraping thing. It really is all about the technique, not the ingredients. I usually divide the ingredients in half for a smaller batch because the syrup starts to congeal after about 2 or 3 days.

For all of these, follow the same method as the Lemon Ice, boiling water and sugar together, add other ingredients, then freezing as directed:


LEMON-LIME WATER ICE (my personal favorite)

Make as above but use 1/2 lemon juice and 1/2 lime juice and equal amounts of lemon and lime peel

FRESH PEACH WATER ICE

1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups peeled and sliced ripe peaches
1 1/2 to 2 tsp. lemon juice

Puree peaches in blender with lemon juice.

ORANGE WATER ICE

2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 grated orange rind (no white part)
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

GRAPE WATER ICE

2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup grape juice
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 Tbs. lemon juice

As always, Rubyrose-fantastic recipes!!

wheregreggeats,
Libby's in New Haven has a huge selection of Italian ices as well as their gelato. Give it a try, it's best after you have your pizza at Pepe's first! My favorite it the blue raspberry.

Yes,Rubyrose,I'm gonna try them....thanks

Wow I never heard of this but I'm gonna try it....thanks leethebard!

If any of you have a Ralf's near you..they're far better than Rita's and the Lemon ice they serve is very close tio the real thing of my childhood.