"sherbet" news and stories

Last summer, a reader took the opportunity to excoriate me for my perceived show-offery when a sorbet recipe I posted mentioned the use of an ice cream maker. Well, for one, a goodly percentage of ice cream, sherbet and sorbet recipes conclude with the mandate to "freeze according to ice cream maker's directions" and for another, it was a goshdarned wedding gift!

Perhaps some small accord could be struck, or perhaps even kicked with the use of the UCO Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker. Ice and rock salt are added to one chamber and edible ingredients to another. The whole unit is then hand-tightened together and the merrymaking/ice cream churning commences. The ball can be tossed, shaken, passed and generally frolicked about with, then opened and stirred, resealed and agitated again until the mixture reaches a pleasing consistency, and co-churners have worn out all "Have a ball!" related puns.

Still, should the $16.50 expenditure (via Amazon) still seem a tad schmancy, I included a coffee can agitation method in a post on Soul-Saving Sweet Tea Sherbet a while back.

UCO's Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker

Kind little rituals seem to go a long way toward making marriage work, so almost every weekend, I make my husband some sweet tea. He's a Southern boy by birth (Brooklynian by marriage), and having a big ol' pitcher easily grabbable in the fridge seems to right any Mason Dixon imbalance he might be suffering at the time. I've got it down to a science, proportion-wise, but this past weekend, his itch for a sugar fix kicked in while I was at the grocery store. What he made tasted divine, but there was just too much for one pitcher, and not enough refrigerator room for a second.

If nothing else, the nuns at St. Scorpacciata instilled in me the mortal fear of wasting food, and seeing how I'd been at the store to buy milk (which neither of us usually drink) for a Bolognese, I decided sherbet would be what saved our souls from eternal damnation. I suppose we won't know for a while if that worked, but it did taste pretty damned delicious.

After much debate about the sorbet vs. ice cream issue in a post earlier this week, we can conclude that sorbets, by definition, do not contain any milk products. We also know the different fat contents that make the difference between low fat and regular ice creams. But what of other ice cream terms? Here are a couple of handy definitions that should help clear things up:

• Sorbet - does not contains dairy; always very light in flavor
• Sherbet - almost always has a fruit component, but also must contain dairy to produce a dessert that is lighter than ice cream, but richer than sorbet
• Frozen yogurt - contains dairy that has been cultured (though most do not contain active cultures), and is churned to resemble soft ice cream, with a smooth, rich texture.
• Ice milk - just like an ice cream, but made with milk rather than cream; a little used term for strict constructionists of the word "ice cream," since most home chefs would say ice cream anyway
• Ice cream - must have at least 10% milkfat (or 8% if there is a mix-in) by volume (if sold commercially); may or may not contain eggs
• Frozen custard (also called French ice cream) - ice cream that is made with at least 1.4% egg yolks, giving it a richer texture than ordinary ice cream.
• Gelato - ice cream with a mixture of milk and sometimes cream in the base, often including eggs. It is churned less than regular ice cream and has less air in the final product, which gives it a dense texture.