Cucumber Sorbet

kossimeonidis

Hi everybody, It is the first time I am posting at the forum.

It is about the time to update our menu and I was experimenting to make a cucumber sorbet yesterday.

I just want your suggestion about stabilizing this sorbet a bit.

The recipe I used is the following

500gr. cucumber pulp (half of the skin on)

35gr. lemon juice

500gr. simple sugar syrup (50/50)

Half leaf (1,6gr.) of gelatine, dissolved into the syrup

I blitz the cucumber in a stand blender until smooth

I kept 500gr. of the pulp I add the lemon juice and I stirred into the syrup+gelatine.

After that, I've put the mixture into the Pacojet beaker and freeze it overnight at -23 C.

The next day I pacotized the sorbet, holding down the air release button.

The taste was exactly what I was looking for (maybe I could go up to 40gr. of lemon juice)

The texture was perfect but... after 2, 3 hours in the freezer, I observed some liquid separation (probably syrup). Just a little bit not too much.

I pacotized it again and the texture came back to perfect, although a little separation occurred again after a couple of hours.

My Question is: How could I stabilize this sorbet? Glucose? Any other stabilizer? what about a very small quantity of banana puree to act like a stabilizer without affecting the taste?

Thank you for your attention!

The photo is after the second pacotizing, when the texture came back to perfect again

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Comments

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Now I really want a Paco

SteveM_20803

Excuse the ignorance here, but why are you using gelatin? The reason I ask is we make a lot of sorbets with our ice cream maker and your recipe above is pretty close to the amounts we use, with the exception of the gelatin. Additionally, I found this on a quick search of freezing geltin:

"the freezing process causes some water to separate out from the gelatin" Just a thought. Great idea on making cucumber sorbet, I plan to steal that idea in the next couple weeks.

kossimeonidis

@SteveM

I am using a small amount of gelatine for better texture and stability of the sorbet. I don't think that the use of gelatine is causing that.

I'm still experimenting on the recipe though... I did a batch with a diferent ratio of glucose and water, instead of sugar and water, and tomorrow I will see the difference.

I might do a batch without any gelatine!

sebastian_palmigiani_21610

@SteveM i recommend getting a refractometer. i got one through amazon. it really helps knowing the % of sugar in the solution. i usually shoot for between 20-25%. being able to quantify the amount of sugar, has made me more confident in making sorbetto and gelato. and with better results. i did a cantaloupe-tarragon sorbetto one week ago, still in the freezer and easily scoopable.

merridith

Add 50g glucose syrup and 30g invert sugar or corn syrup - that might help.

SteveM_20803

Constantinos I am very interested in the results of your testing. To be honest I made a honey dew sorbet earlier this week and wasn't in the mood to make a simple syrup, so I just added a sugar directly to the melon while I was blending it. One thing that I have always done is let the mixture chill in the refrigerator over night before running it through the ice cream maker. But that is an step that came with the instructions for using our machine.

kossimeonidis

@SteveM

I did 3 different batches. The first one is the one that I wrote initially on this post. The next 2 batches I kept the same cucumber, lemon and gelatine and I only adjust the rest..

So, the second one is with 375 glucose and 185 water (No sugar at all) and the third one is 163 glucose, 170 sugar, 167 water.

The second batch which I tried yesterday, the texture was too smooth... almost like soft butter and not sweet enough, so I didin't like it.

The third one that I believe it will be the best out of the 3, I will be tasting it today and I will let you know.

@Merridith According to my research, glucose syrup is less sweet than sugar, and inverted sugar is more sweet than sugar. Could you explain how and why they would work improving the texture in a sorbet?

Thank you

merridith

@Constantinos Glucose and Invert sugar (corn syrup) inhibit crystallization. They are not used for sweetening. This would also explain why your second batch was too smooth. Neither are sweet enough on their own to get the sweetness right but in combination with sucrose they should do the trick. You can also add 50 g of milk powder which will improve mouthfeel. Finally, a small amount of guar gum and locust bean gum (.3-.6 g total) should help the syneresis (weeping) and also help inhibit crystallization, too. See the discussion thread on the egg-free vanilla ice cream, on the strawberry angostura sorbet and also look at the ice cream class here for other hints.

Boiron (maker of beautiful fruit and veg purees) suggests even heavier stabilizers. I use 1 g of a sorbet stabilizer made of a combo of gelatin, guar and locust bean gums in 500g fruit purée plus 150 g sucrose, 50g glucose syrup and 30 g corn syrup, for a batch of sorbet.

kossimeonidis

Thank you so much @Merridith for your explanation. Unfortunately I don't have access to guar and locust bean gums at the moment.

The third batch I made was the best out of the 3.

The proportions I used were:

1200 gr. Half peeled cucumber pulp (4 regular cucumbers)

85 gr. Lemon juice

400 gr Water

408 gr. Sugar

390 gr. Glucose

5 gr. Gelatine (1,5 sheets)

2488 gr. Total

Yields 3 pacojet beakers (830gr. each)

merridith

@Constantinos Where are you located? Lucky you to have a Pacojet! Of all the goodies I would like to have, this would be it but it is just ridiculous for a home cook. I am going to try your cucumber sorbet soon and I will add a little guar and locust bean gum and let you know what I find. What kind of cukes did you use?

Tom_Champion_14732

May I suggest a little Hendricks gin to accompany the sorbet?

Chris_Young_80640

I basically agree with what Merridith has said. Glucose and invert sugar lower the freezing point of the sorbet, making it softer because there is less frozen water. They don't stabilize the mix, and as you have seen you'll get recrystallization over time. What you are looking for is a way to prevent ice recystallization. Gelatin can help. LBG and xanthan work too. But one of my favorite methods it turn the entire mix into a fluid gel with gellan gum or agar first, then freeze it in the PacoJet canister. Hydrate around 0.25% Kelcogel F into the sorbet base should work well.