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Dessert

Cranberry Sherbet

A frozen dessert made from cranberries, water, sugar, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cranberry Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cranberries

  1. Pick over cranberries to measure 1 pint.

  2. Add 1 quart water.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Cook until berries break.

  5. Rub through a sieve.

  6. Measure the liquid.

  7. Add water to make 3 pints if needed.

Make the sherbet base

  1. Return to heat.

  2. Add 1 pound sugar.

  3. Stir until dissolved.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Add 1 tablespoon gelatin soaked in ½ cup cold water. Stir.

  6. Strain.

Freeze and serve

  1. Freeze to a thick mush.

  2. Serve in tall glasses.

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. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cranberries
Provide the tart fruit flavour and the colour of the sherbet.
Sugar
Sweetens the juice and lowers its freezing point so the sherbet stays soft.
Gelatin
Adds body and helps the frozen sherbet hold a smooth, firm texture.

The step that matters

Freeze to a thick mush. Freezing should be stopped at a thick mush rather than a solid block. Sugar and gelatin keep the mixture partly unfrozen, so a thick mush gives a smooth, scoopable texture.

“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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