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Dessert

Method of Making Water Ices and Sherbets

A frozen dessert made from a sugar syrup, fruit juice, and egg white, chilled with ice and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Method of Making Water Ices and Sherbets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Cook the water and sugar in a double boiler until a clear syrup forms.

  2. Remove any scum from the syrup.

  3. Strain the syrup through a fine muslin cloth.

  4. Let the syrup cool.

  5. Add the fruit juice to the cooled syrup.

Freeze

  1. Pour the mixture into a freezer.

  2. Pack the freezer with ice and salt.

  3. Freeze while slowly turning the crank until stiff.

  4. Open the can.

  5. Scrape down the sides.

  6. Stir until smooth.

Add the egg white and ripen

  1. Beat the egg white with powdered sugar until smooth.

  2. Fold the beaten egg white into the mixture.

  3. Let the brine drain.

  4. Repack with ice and salt.

  5. Let it ripen for 2 to 3 hours covered with a wet carpet.

  6. Beat the mixture again.

  7. Pack it down.

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.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves into the syrup to sweeten the ice and lower its freezing point for a smooth texture.
Egg white
Whipped and folded in to add lightness and a fluffy, airy body to the frozen mixture.
Fruit juice
Provides the main flavor and acidity, and adds liquid to the base.

The step that matters

Strain the syrup through a fine muslin cloth. Removing scum and fine solids leaves a clear, smooth base. Any leftover particles can form gritty ice crystals once frozen.

“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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