The Latest Scoop

For me, it all started with navel oranges.

Unlike their overly juicy Valencia cousin, navels are eating fruits and the perfect seasonal snack. Although these citrus fruits only appear in the “chill” of a west coast winter, the bright peel and the sweet tart taste smack of the washed out sunlight more typical of a southern California summer.

That combination of sweet and sour has been a part of me ever since.

Citrus fruit, like most of us from the Golden State, ultimately came from somewhere else, but that may be why they have the ability to transport us. I went on from oranges to sour candy, sour gum, tart-skinned plums, cherry pie, dried apricots, lemons, limes and then on to other sweet & sour dishes and overly tart salad dressings (something my family doesn’t exactly appreciate).

Tartness is the shock jock of the culinary world, not so much a flavor as it is an assault on the senses. Unlike some of the more civilized tastes you enjoy through your nose, sourness has its very own taste buds. The reason behind this prime piece of tongue real estate is because sour tastes are often a warning sign that something is poisonous or has gone bad. That hint of danger is what makes tart tastes such a thrill.

There is such a thing as going too far, however.

Dairy, for instance.

Although Sour cream and sugar is a traditional and tasty dessert combination, sour milk is something even I find disgusting. Sour ice cream doesn’t really do it for me either.

So where do those of us with tart tongues go in the world of frozen desserts?

Luckily, there are two delicious places. The first is sorbet which is essentially sweetened juice that’s been frozen. The next is sherbet, which is closer to ice cream because it has dairy as one of its ingredients. I loved sherbet when I was a kid, although I knew it as sher-BERT.  Unfortunately, I’ve never made one, so I’m starting with sorbet instead.

This week’s first effort starts with the sweet stuff that is the foundation of all sorbets: simple syrup. Equal parts water and granulated sugar, simple syrup is sorbet’s equivalent to the custard base of ice cream. Whereas all ice creams begin as thin custards before the flavoring is added. Sorbets begin with simple syrup.

From there we proceed to the flavor. I went with lime juice, the much sourer cousin of the orange. I figured it was a good and safe place to start since my kids were already familiar with this type of sorbet, albeit in the form of a popsicle.

The trick with making any frozen dessert is getting the flavor balance right. When foods are very cold, our tongues don’t experience their tastes in the same way. We don’t taste sweet as much when it is cold, but we still taste sour. So when you balance the two in your sorbet, it should taste more sweet than sour before you freeze it.

I had trouble with this phenomenon in my first attempt at this sorbet. When I tasted the mixture beforehand I liked it, but after I froze it, it was too sour even for my taste. My eldest daughter still liked it, a girl after my own heart, but I had to rebalance the mix for the rest of us. Fortunately, this just involved thawing the mixture out, adding more simple syrup and re-freezing.

As you can see, sorbets couldn’t be easier, which makes them the perfect choice as we head into the dog days of summer. Also, unlike ice creams, sorbets don’t require any time or heat on the stovetop, so they’re cooler by far.

A lime’s life may be sour, but putting them into a sorbet makes it very sweet indeed.

Lime Sorbet
(about 2 quarts)
2 cups water
2 cups granulated sugar
1¼ cups lime juice
½ T grated lime zest

1. Dissolve the sugar into the water over medium heat to make simple syrup, then cover and cool.
2. Grate the limes with a microplane, zester or grater then squeeze the juice out of them.
3. When the simple syrup is sufficiently cold (at least two hours in the fridge), blend the lime juice and zest into the mixture and add it to the bowl of an ice cream freezer.
4. Freeze.

NOTE:     When freezing ice cream, you need to use an ice cream freezer to ensure that a certain amount of air is mixed into the frozen cream. This gives it a lighter, less icy consistency. When freezing sorbet, you may also freeze it in a popsicle mold, a bowl or on a sheet pan. Be sure to stir the mixture occasionally to limit the size of the ice particles. Larger chunks of ice make for granita, miniscule chunks make for a nice smooth sorbet (an ice cream freezer is ideal)

Photo Credit: “A scoop of lime,” by the author. 

Finally here’s something for those among us who can’t eat dairy. Sorry it’s taken so long. If you’re lactose intolerant too or would just like to see something less cream-centric, let me know in a comment.