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Dessert

Lemon Sherbet

A chilled lemon dessert made by dissolving sugar in lemon juice and water, then freezing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Lemon Sherbet

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Rub sugar on lemons to remove the yellow rind.

  2. Put sugar in a bowl, squeeze lemon juice over it, and add water.

  3. Stir until sugar is dissolved, then strain the mixture.

Freeze

  1. Freeze the mixture in a freezer with salt and ice until desired 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Loaf sugar
Sweetens the mixture and dissolves into the lemon juice and water to form a syrup.
Fresh lemons
Provide the acidity and lemon flavour, with juice giving the sherbet its sharp, bright taste.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves readily, contributing to a smooth texture when frozen.
Egg whites
Add body and a light, airy texture to the frozen sherbet.

The step that matters

Freezing until desired consistency. Freezing with salt and ice must be stopped at the right point; over-freezing makes the sherbet hard and icy, while stopping too early leaves it too soft. Sugar content also lowers the freezing point, so the texture changes gradually.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less 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.

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