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Dessert

Method of Making Water Ices and Sherbets

A chilled dessert made from a sugar syrup, fruit juice, and egg white, frozen with ice and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Method of Making Water Ices and Sherbets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Cook the water and sugar in a double boiler until a clear syrup forms.

  2. Remove any scum from the syrup.

  3. Strain the syrup through a fine muslin cloth.

  4. Let the syrup cool.

  5. Add the fruit juice to the cooled syrup.

Freeze

  1. Pour the mixture into a freezer.

  2. Pack the mixture with ice and salt.

  3. Freeze the mixture.

  4. Turn the crank slowly until the mixture becomes stiff.

  5. Open the can.

  6. Scrape down the sides of the can.

  7. Stir the mixture until smooth.

Add egg white and finish

  1. Add the beaten egg white mixed with powdered sugar to the mixture.

  2. Work the egg white into the mixture until smooth.

  3. Let the brine off.

  4. Repack the mixture with ice and salt.

  5. Let it stand for 2 to 3 hours covered with a wet carpet.

  6. Open the can again.

  7. Beat the mixture again.

  8. Pack it down.

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves into the water to form a syrup that sweetens the ice and keeps it smooth.
Egg white
Whipped and folded in to add air and a lighter, smoother texture.
Fruit juice
Provides flavor and acidity, and adds liquid that freezes into the ice.

The step that matters

Work the egg white into the mixture until smooth. Beaten egg white holds air only if it is folded in gently and evenly; overworking or uneven mixing can deflate it and leave streaks, giving a denser, less light 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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