The inside scoop on Sorbet

Icy cold, crunchy, crystalline and usually quite tangy - that’s the secret of sorbet. Anna Trapido writes.The melting, snowflake smoothness of sorbet makes it the ultimate in cool food for a hot day. At its most basic, sorbet is a frozen, flavoured syrup with whisked egg whites added to prevent the formation of large ice crystals and its great strength is to be found in its lightness. Unlike its culinary cousin, the ice cream, sorbet has no cream or egg yolk, and so it refreshes the parts that heavier chilled desserts cannot reach.

While ice creams appear in the culinary literature only in the 18th century, sorbet (and its even simpler, even more ancient sibling the granita) is chillingly old. Larousse Gastronomique mentions that 3 000 years ago Chinese emperors were cooling their palates with sorbet. Nadia Roden (daughter of the more famous Claudia) reports that ancient Arab texts tell of sorbets made from honey, fruit syrup and snow. Prue Leith describes how in the first century AD the Roman emperor Nero sent his servants to the Apennine Mountains to collect glacial snow to mix with fruit pulp. Others write about Arab sailors taking the art of sorbet making to Sicily when they conquered the island in the 9th century. Whatever the exact history of this frozen treasure, its route via the Arab world into Europe is confirmed by its very name. The word ‘sorbet’ is a Gallic mispronunciation of the Italian term ‘sorbeto’ which is itself a corruption of the Turkish ‘chorbet’ which comes from the Arabic word ‘charab’ meaning refreshment or drink. Common sense tells one that it must be possible to produce anything this ancient without mod-cons. Many books will claim that you need to buy an ice cream machine to churn out ice crystals and a saccharometer to measure sugar levels but the truth is that no such expenditure is necessary.

Hot tips for cold play:

Sorbet is basically made of a syrup and too much sugar in the mix will prevent it from setting. Tech nically the ideal proportion of sugar is 37% but for get fancy measuring tools – you really can’t go wrong as long as you remember that your syrup should be roughly one third sugar to two thirds un- sweetened liquid.

Boozy sorbets can be fabulous but remember that alcohol freezes at a lower temperature than water and that ices which are very high in alcohol may never freeze properly.

Cold minimizes flavour. When tasting your unfrozen product it should be more intense to the taste than the final flavour you are looking for.

Be warned, sorbets can be more dangerous than you think! They usually contain raw egg white and you might want to keep frail elderly relatives, babies and pregnant women away from the frozen treasures. Pasteurised egg whites are an option for the truly neurotic…
Sorbet recipe

This recipe is adapted from one found in the Leiths Cookery Bible. It is the perfect sorbet base onto which you can add flavours. I like to add Rooibos tea bags when the syrup is boiling for a Rooibos flavoured sorbet.

Serves 4

Thinly pared zest of 3 lemons
125ml lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
140g granulated white sugar
570ml water
½ egg white

• Place the zest, sugar and water in a saucepan and heat to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved
  bring the mixture to the boil and then remove from the heat. Allow the syrup to cool completely.
• When the syrup is cold, add the lemon juice.
• Strain to remove any stray zest.
• If you have a food processor, freeze the mixture completely then place the frozen mixture in the blender and whizz up, slowly pouring egg white through a funnel. This process is known as spuming. Place the spumed sorbet back in the freezer and freeze until firm.
• If you do not have a blender, freeze the lemon syrup mixture until it is beginning to solidify (about 30 minutes), then beat the egg white to stiff peak and fold it into the mixture. Return the sorbet to the freezer until firm.
  

WINE RECOMMENDATION:
Lemon sorbet is the ultimate palate cleanser and therefore is not served with a wine.