Skip to main content
Dessert

Rhubarb Sherbet

A chilled rhubarb dessert made with gelatin, sugar, egg whites, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Rhubarb Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Stew the rhubarb until very tender and press through a sieve to measure the pulp.

  2. Add sugar to taste and heat over the fire.

  3. Dissolve the gelatine in a little cold water, then add it to the fruit mixture.

  4. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and let it cool.

Freeze and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a chilled freezer and freeze slowly for 5 to 6 minutes.

  2. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites and powdered sugar.

  3. Continue freezing until smooth and firm, then serve in sherbet glasses garnished with chopped candied cherries.

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. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

  3. Rhubarb + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb pulp
Provides the main fruit flavour and tart base of the sherbet.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so the frozen sherbet holds a smooth, firm body.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and lowers the freezing point for a softer texture.
Egg whites
Whipped in as foam, they add lightness and an airy, smooth texture.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the beaten whites, sweetening and stabilising the foam.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites must be stiffly beaten and folded gently so the air bubbles stay intact. Deflating the foam through vigorous stirring makes the sherbet dense rather than light.

Swap the rhubarb

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Rhubarbthe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

You might also like

Rhubarb PieRhubarb Pie152 recipesRhubarb MarmaladeRhubarb Marmalade35 recipesRhubarb JellyRhubarb Jelly28 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes