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Drink

Cowslip Sherbet

A chilled sweet beverage made from cowslips, citrus rinds, sugar, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cowslip Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Boil water and sugar together for 30 minutes, skimming off any scum.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the cowslips and citrus rinds.

  3. Cover and let it sit in a cool place for 2 days.

Strain and clarify

  1. Squeeze out the cowslips and strain the mixture into a barrel or drink pot.

  2. Reserve 1 cup of the liquid to dissolve the isinglass in.

  3. Add the dissolved isinglass to the main mixture and seal the container.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the sherbet after 3 weeks.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. 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

Isinglass
Acts as a fining agent that helps clear the liquid as it settles.
Loaf sugar
Provides sweetness and body, and helps preserve the drink.
Cowslips
Provide the main floral flavour as the hot liquid steeps them.
Seville oranges
Add acidity and aromatic citrus oil to the infusion.
Lemon rinds
Add aromatic citrus oil and sharpness to the infusion.

The step that matters

Let the boiled mixture cool before adding isinglass. Isinglass dissolved in liquid that is too hot or too cold may not disperse evenly, and the sudden temperature change can disturb the clearing process. Settling and sealing should follow once the mixture is evenly combined.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Orangethe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, lemon. 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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