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Dessert

Apple Sherbet

Apple sherbet made from apple pulp, lemon juice, sugar, water, and egg whites, served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apple pulp

  1. Pare and stew the apples, then press through a sieve to measure 1 pint of apple pulp.

Make the sherbet

  1. In a bowl, combine the apple pulp, sugar, lemon juice, and water.

  2. Beat the mixture well and partially freeze it.

  3. Fold in the well-beaten egg whites and freeze until firm.

Serve

  1. Serve in glasses with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

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. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Apple pulp
Provides the main fruit flavor and body of the sherbet.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sherbet and softens its texture as it freezes.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the apple flavor and balances the sweetness.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to add air, lightness, and a smoother frozen texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the well-beaten egg whites. Egg whites must be beaten well so they hold air; folding gently keeps that air in the mixture, which gives the sherbet a light texture instead of a dense, icy one.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, 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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