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Dessert

Grape Sherbet

A frozen dessert made from sugar, water, lemon juice, grape juice, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Grape Sherbet

Why it works: Grape and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,682 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Grape Sherbet

ten people

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the sugar and water for fifteen minutes; add the fruit juices, freeze, and add the white of egg before it is quite stiff.

  2. Serve ten people.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

350Calories
15 gProtein
14 gFat
45 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

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. Grape + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,682 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  2. Lemon + grapetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,412 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the sherbet softer and less icy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet grape flavor.
Grape juice
Supplies the main fruit flavor and color.
Egg white
Whipped to a foam, it adds airiness and lightness to the frozen texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg white. Fold in the white while it is still soft, not quite stiff. Over-whipped whites form dry, grainy peaks that break apart and deflate when folded into the cold mixture, losing the light texture.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, milk, egg. 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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