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Dessert

Orange Sherbet

A chilled citrus dessert made from orange rind, sugar, water, orange and lemon juice, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Orange Sherbet

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Grate the rind of the oranges and mix with sugar.

  2. Add water and cook in a double boiler until it forms a clear syrup, removing any scum.

  3. Remove from heat and strain through a fine cloth.

Finish and freeze

  1. Once cool, add the strained juice of the oranges and lemons along with cold water.

  2. Taste and add more sugar if needed, then strain again.

  3. Freeze the mixture until solid.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

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
Sweetens the sherbet and, with the syrup, helps keep it smooth rather than icy.
Orange juice
Provides the main flavor, acidity and liquid for the sherbet.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and sharpens the citrus flavor.
Orange rind
Adds aromatic oils that give a stronger orange aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Straining the syrup while it is clear. Removing scum during cooking and straining through fine cloth keeps the syrup clear and free of solids, so the frozen sherbet has a smooth texture instead of grainy or cloudy bits.

“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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