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Dessert

Lemon Sherbet

A frozen dessert made from lemon juice, sugar, milk, cream, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Lemon Sherbet

Why it works: Lemon and arrowroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lemon Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemonade

  1. Squeeze the juice from the lemons.

  2. Slice the rind.

  3. Pour 6 quarts of boiling water over the lemon rind.

  4. Mix 3 pounds of sugar with the lemon juice.

Thicken the milk

  1. Bring 1 quart of milk to a boil.

  2. Thicken the milk with 3 tablespoons of arrowroot or cornstarch.

  3. Remove all seeds.

  4. Remove most of the rind, leaving a few slices for garnish.

Freeze

  1. Stir in the thickened milk and the beaten egg whites once the lemonade begins to freeze.

  2. Add 1 quart of fresh cream.

  3. Stir often while freezing.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + arrowroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + arrowroottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together817 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Provide the sharp acidity and bright citrus aroma that define the sherbet.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen texture softer by lowering the freezing point.
Milk
Adds body and a mild dairy flavor that softens the tart lemon.
Arrowroot or cornstarch
Thickens the milk so the frozen mixture stays smooth and less icy.
Egg whites
Add airy structure and lightness to the frozen mixture.
Fresh cream
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, creamier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir in the thickened milk and egg whites at the right moment. Adding them once the lemonade begins to freeze lets them blend into a partly set base. Added too early or too late, the milk and whites are harder to distribute evenly, which affects smoothness and texture.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, milk, egg, cream):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Arrowrootthe original
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, milk, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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