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Turkish Sherbet

A sweet wine and fruit beverage with raisins, figs, grapes, almonds, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Turkish Sherbet

Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Turkish Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and water to make a hot syrup.

  2. Pour the syrup over the raisins, cloves, and cinnamon.

Blend and finish

  1. Once cool, add the lemon juice and sweet wine.

  2. Strain the mixture, removing the spices.

  3. Finally, add the scalded raisins, figs, grapes, and almonds.

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. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + figtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Grape + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together323 recipes

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

  4. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  5. Wine + grapetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together819 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-p-menthene-8-thiol (grapefruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and body to the syrup and the finished drink.
Sweet wine
Adds liquid, sweetness and flavor to the sherbet.
Lemons
Add acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup and wine.
Figs
Add fruit flavor, sweetness and soft texture to the finished drink.
Muscat grapes
Contribute fruit sweetness and aroma to the sherbet.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, sugar, almond, grape, fig, raisin, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sugar, almond, grape, fig, raisin, 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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