Sorbet (, ) is a frozen dessert made using ice combined with fruit juice, fruit purée, or other ingredients, such as wine, liqueur, or honey.
Sorbet does not contain dairy products. Sherbet is similar to sorbet, but contains dairy.
Sherbet in Europe still refers to a type of flavored drink, while North American sherbet is similar to sorbet. August Escoffier describes sorbet as "very light and barely-congealed ices, served after the Entrées. They serve in freshening the stomach, preparing it to properly receive the roast. They are appetizers and help to aid digestion".August Escoffier, The Escoffier Cook Book, 1976, , translation of Le Guide Culinaire, 1903, p. 853 Sorbet is sometimes referred to as "water ice".
Romans did not add ice to their drinks because easily accessible ice along the lower slopes of mountains was not sanitary for use in food preparation.
The first Western mention of sherbet is an Italian reference to something that Ottoman Turks drink. The word sherbet entered the Italian language as sorbetto, which later became sorbet in French. August Escoffier describes sorbet as "very light and barely-congealed ices, served after the Entrées. They serve in freshening the stomach; preparing it to properly receive the roast. They are appetizers and help to aid digestion". He recommends that they register 15° on the saccharometer and be of drinkable consistency.
The first recipe in French language for flavored ices appears in 1674, in Nicholas Lemery's Recueil de curiositéz rares et nouvelles de plus admirables effets de la nature. Recipes for sorbetti saw publication in the 1694 edition of Antonio Latini's Lo Scalco alla Moderna (The Modern Steward). Recipes for flavored ices begin to appear in François Massialot's Nouvelle Instruction pour les Confitures, les Liqueurs, et les Fruits, starting with the 1692 edition. Massialot's recipes result in a coarse, pebbly texture. Latini claims that the results of his recipes should have the fine consistency of sugar and snow. When Europeans figured out how to freeze sherbet they began making sorbetto by adding fruit juices and flavorings to a frozen simple syrup base. In the US, sherbet generally meant an ice milk, but recipes from early soda fountain manuals included ingredients such as gelatin, beaten egg whites, cream, or milk.
Sorbet is usually made with fresh fruit and simple syrup, but other types of preparations exist. Tart sorbets are served as between savory courses of a meal. Mulled wine sorbet can be made with red wine, orange, lemons, mulling spices, ruby port, and egg whites. Muscat sorbet is made with dessert wine, lemon juice, and egg whites. Coconut sorbets are shaved ice and a combination of coconut water, coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut flakes and muscovado.
Givré (French for "frosted") is the term for a sorbet served in a frozen coconut shell or hollowed-out fruit, such as a lemon. Agraz is a type of sorbet with an acidic flavor attributed by Larousse Gastronomique to the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is made from , verjuice, and sugar.
Preparation
See also
Bibliography
|
|