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Sparkling Peach & Thyme Sorbet

The perfect boozy summer dessert!

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Why it works: Peach and thyme share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 40 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 10
Prep4 hr
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: cream

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the water, sugar, and honey. Stir until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes, then add the fresh thyme and simmer for 2 minutes.

  2. Remove the syrup from the heat, strain out the thyme if desired, and let it cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes.

  3. Place the peach slices, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a blender and blend until completely smooth.

  4. Stir the cooled syrup into the peach puree, then stir in the Champagne.

  5. Refrigerate the mixture until very cold, at least 2 hours.

  6. Churn the chilled mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions, about 20 to 25 minutes, until thick and slushy.

  7. If you have no ice cream maker, pour the mixture into a shallow freezer-safe dish and freeze, stirring every 30 minutes with a fork, until thick, about 3 to 4 hours.

  8. Transfer the sorbet to a freezer-safe container, cover, and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours.

  9. Let the sorbet stand at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before scooping.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Peach + thymetop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Peach + honeytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together177 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Honey + champagnetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Peach + champagnetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, sugar, honey, thyme, champagne):

  1. Raspberrybetter flavor fit
  2. Apricotbetter flavor fit
  3. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, sugar, honey, thyme, champagne. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).