Sunday, July 6, 2008

The problem with lemon-lime soup

The biggest problem with lemon-lime soup is that it I had wanted to make sorbet. Think on it: it's a warm summer evening, you've just eaten some tasty grilled meats and Jersey corn (well, not me, but that's another story) and for dessert, some cool and tasty lemon-lime sorbet. So I follow what looks like a good recipe:

6 c sugar
3 c water
1 1/4 c lemon juice
1 c lime juice
3/4 each lemon and lime zest

Make syrup out of the sugar and water, cool to room temp, mix in the juice and zest, then freeze in the ice cream maker for about 30 minutes. Then pour into a Rubbermaid and let set for 6 hours or so. Easy, right?

WRONG. I made this batch of sorbet back on Friday evening, and it's still soup. After thinking about this for a bit, it hit me as to why: it's science, of course. Freezing point depression occurs when you mix a solute (in this case, sugar) into a solvent (in this case, water) in proportion with a constant. In the case of the recipe above, the freezing point of the sugar syrup is about 14 degrees F. Hence, I've got a partially frozen lemon-lime soup.

Next time, I'm going to lower the sugar down to a 1.5:1 ratio. Stupid colligative properties.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

It may be soupy, but it is still delicious. If I have to eat it with a straw, I will.

The Biggest of the Als said...

The real problem with lemon lime soup? YOU'RE GAY.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it would make a great marqarita mix!

Katya said...

It may be the attorney in me rearing her ugly head, but I second that margarita mix comment - Also, I clearly am sick of studying