No-Recipe Sorbet: The Egg Test

One of the best ways to capture the pure taste of summer fruit is by turning it into sorbet. But hitting the perfect balance between overly sweetened and not sweet enough when making the base can be tricky — unless you use the egg test.

We first spotted this trick on Jill Silverman Hough's website, where she outlined her step-by-step method for making fruit sorbets. After pureeing the fruit, she adds simple syrup to taste. Then she floats a clean, raw egg in the mixture to check the balance. If the amount of shell poking out of the liquid is the size of a nickel, the mixture has just enough sugar to make a sorbet that isn't too soft or too icy.

If the amount of visible shell is smaller, the mixture needs a little more simple syrup, and if it's larger than a nickel, add more fruit puree. What an easy trick!

• Check it out: How to make sorbet without a recipe at Jill Silverman Hough

Have you ever tried the egg test when making a sorbet?

Related: Summer's End Nectarine Sorbet

(Images: Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan; Flickr member modomatic licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (12)

so does this have to do with the density of the liquid or the viscosity?

As eggs age, the air pocket inside them gets bigger--that is why "old" eggs are easier to peel when boiled. Really old eggs will actually float in plain water. That is also why this tip seems a bit wonky. The amount of egg showing would depend on how old the egg is that you are floating in the mixture.

I learned this trick in baking school! You can also use a hygrometer for the same effect(it's used in wine making) what you are measuring is the sugar density(don't quote me on this, I've been out of school for a while)

@caliH
This has to do with the density of the liquid, rather than the viscosity. The more sugar is added, the more dense the sorbet mixture will be, and the higher the egg will float. This is similar to the effect seen when people bathe in the Dead Sea, which is more dense than the ocean because of the high percentage of dissolved salts.

@smvillers
As long as the egg is reasonably fresh, purchased in the last week or so, this should work just fine.

Awesome advice.

Just out of curiosity, if we had a hydrometer (you can get one at a brewing store for like $4), what specific gravity would we want it at?

Wow that's a really good tip. After the post yesterday about the baby food Ive been determined to make my own frozen fruit treat. My roommate has the food processor so I'll use that, but I'm still wondering what kind of small container to put these little treats in. Maybe popsicle containers? or little jars? I'm sure I could find something at hobby lobby.

just wanted to point out that you do leave the egg in the shell. *Judging by the salmonella comment above*

@technicolor troglodyte "reasonably fresh" is pretty subjective in the US - an egg can be sold as "fresh" up to three months after it was laid.

The best gauge for egg freshness is hard boiling one and noting how difficult it is to peel. If you can't get the shell off cleanly/without taking chunks of thin albumin, you've got a pretty fresh egg.

@alyssasteffes use the small jars that you can buy for canning, they'd be the perfect size.

Sorry, it was my understanding that salmonella could be present on the outside surface of an egg, but I haven't been able to find a definitive reference. Didn't mean to be a total downer; it's a clever method.

Thank you so much for noticing my post AND for referring others to it! I'm so touched - and honored! Thank you.