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Pineapple Sherbet
1 quart water 2 cups sugar 1 lemon 2 cups shredded pineapple, fresh or canned 2 egg-whites Boil water and sugar together for five minutes. Chop pineapple (it may be put through a food-chopper if a pan is put below to catch the juice), scald it in the boiling sirup, and rub through a sieve. Cool, add lemon-juice and freeze to a mush. Add the beaten whites of the eggs and continue freezing.
A plain water ice of the kind that filled the frozen-dessert chapter of every general cookbook in the 1920s. One step in it is no longer acceptable practice.
- The raw egg whitesThe beaten whites go in after the mixture has been frozen to a mush and are never heated at any point. Uncooked egg white carries a Salmonella risk that is not reduced by freezing — chilling suspends bacteria rather than killing them. For a meringue-lightened sherbet, use a current recipe built on pasteurised egg white or a cooked Italian meringue.
- Why the whites are there at allBeaten white was the standard way to keep a water ice from setting into a solid block: the air and protein interrupt ice-crystal growth and give the fluffy, slightly chewy texture the period called a sherbet as distinct from a plain granita or water ice.
- "Freeze to a mush"This assumes a hand-cranked churn packed with cracked ice and rock salt, where the mixture thickens gradually and can be opened mid-way to add the whites. In a modern countertop machine the same stage is roughly when the mixture holds a soft ribbon on the paddle.
- Scalding the pineappleFresh pineapple contains bromelain, which breaks down protein and would slacken any egg or gelatine in the mix. Scalding it in the boiling syrup, as directed, deactivates the enzyme — a step worth keeping in any pineapple ice.
- Sirup proportionsOne quart water to two cups sugar is a fairly lean syrup, and the five-minute boil will drive off a little water, concentrating it slightly. Sugar is what keeps a sherbet scoopable; reducing it produces something closer to a solid ice block.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; by volume the ingredients suggest roughly a quart and a half to two quarts once churned.