RCP: Smellin' Melon Sorbet

One of the vendors at the weekly farmers' market here has had some amazing Charentais melons lately. These are the kind that fill your house with their scent as soon as you get them in the door. Seemed like good candidates for sorbet, so I consulted my frozen dessert bible, Ices, by Liddell and Weir. I scooped the flesh out of four of the melons (these are about the size of a softball) and threw it in a blender with 1 1/2 cups of sugar, the juice from a couple of lemons, and 3 tbsp of a Benedictine-type liqueur we have sitting around. (The recipe called for white port but we didn't have any of that. In retrospect, I'll bet that some Maraschino liqueur would have been better.) Blended it into a puree, let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours, and then put it into the ice cream freezer. Once it was nearly set, I took an egg white, beat it with a fork for a minute or two, and threw it in. After it firmed up a bit more, I scooped it out of the ice cream freezer and put it in the regular freezer to finish.

This is amazing stuff - it's like concentrated essence of melon. Everyone loved it - even the kids, who generally prefer ice cream over sorbet. Highly recommended if you can get really aromatic melon.

Sounds excellent, Mike! I really admire your spirit for invention.

[Jenise]

Mike, I make sorbets from time to time but generally folllow the same formula more or less. No egg white. Yet I once had a raspberry sorbet in a restaurant that had a different texture to it that I then thought might have been caused by egg white, as it was not unlike some maccaroons I've had. Kind of like a clear glue. Seeing that in your method makes me want to ask why/when you would find it neccessary or desirous to add egg white vs. not doing so.

Jenise -

My understanding (from the Ices book) is that egg whites can help stabilize sorbets that are prone to quick melting and to lighten those that will tend to be too dense. I have gone back and forth on this myself and don't have enough experience to know how much of a difference they really make. In the case of this melon sorbet, I think they did make for a slightly lighter texture and a product more easily scooped out straight from the freezer.