Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓
Sherbet
Ingredients
Directions
Mix 40 drops of lemon essence with ½ pound of icing sugar.
Ensure ¼ pound of carbonate of soda and ¼ pound of tartaric acid are thoroughly dry, then mix with the sugar.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve once or twice to ensure it's well mixed.
Store in bottles and cork tightly, keeping dampness out.
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.
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Carbonate of soda
- Reacts with tartaric acid when wet to release carbon dioxide, giving the sherbet its fizz.
- Tartaric acid
- Supplies the sourness and reacts with carbonate of soda to produce the fizzing effect.
- Icing sugar
- Adds sweetness and bulk, and dissolves easily so the powder blends evenly.
The step that matters
Keeping the powder dry. Carbonate of soda and tartaric acid only react in the presence of moisture. Any dampness before serving will start the fizzing early and weaken the sherbet, so the ingredients must be dry and the bottles tightly corked.
“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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