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Madeira Wine Sherbet

A frozen dessert made from Madeira wine, sugar, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓

Madeira Wine Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix Madeira wine with sugar to taste.

  2. Add egg white and beat until well combined.

  3. Freeze mixture until sherbet consistency.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  2. Madeira wine + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Madeira wine + eggtop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together445 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Madeira wine
Provides the main flavour and, with sugar, lowers the freezing point so the sherbet stays soft rather than rock-hard.
Egg white
Its proteins trap air when beaten, giving the sherbet a lighter, smoother texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the sherbet scoopable rather than icy.

The step that matters

Freeze mixture until sherbet consistency. Freezing too long makes the mixture hard and icy, while too short leaves it runny. Sugar and alcohol slow freezing, so check the texture as it firms and stir or beat it for a smoother result.

“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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