294116 Mon Sep 15 15:02:35 -0700 2003 4 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1611972 I borrowed a friend's ice cream maker this weekend and made form fresh pineapple sorbet. I followed the manufacturer's instructions. I blended fresh pineapple with sugar and lemon juice, chilled the mixture and put them into the ice cream maker. The resulting sorbet was tasty, but not like the restaurant or store bought kind. Mine was very airy, and fluffy. I'm not sure I like that. Did it mix too long? If I cut back on the time, will that result in more a dense but not hard sorbet? I only mixed for about 18 minutes total. Mon Sep 15 15:02:35 -0700 2003 0 Wendy Lai 1 1612008 Whenever we made sorbets (including pineapple) at this restaurant I worked at, we would puree the fruit then strain it and mix the juice with a cold sugar syrup. I'm pretty sure the proportions of sugar:water are 2:3 by weight. Mix equal amounts of juice and syrup then add fresh lemon juice to taste. Some might argue that we should have checked to see that it has the correct density but it's always worked. Mon Sep 15 22:41:57 -0700 2003 1611972 0 aprilmei 2 1612022 hey, if it works, it works. I'm not very exact either when it comes to checking the density of the syrup but then I stopped using syrup and just add granulated sugar to the pureed fruit and adjust with lemon juice. The mixture should be very cold before freezing in the machine - I think the shorter freezing time will result in a better texture (less crystal growth?) The use of granulated sugar also results in a different texture from the use of syrup - it's not as hard because there is no added water to freeze and maybe a bit less water to dilute the fruit puree flavor? A friend told me that this method was popular among his restaurant friends in Paris (20 years ago) Tue Sep 16 03:15:10 -0700 2003 1612008 0 gordon wing 1 1612057 This must be the season of homemade pineapple sorbet. Whipped up a batch myself, unfortunately did not stop and strain, which I should have. But I pureed the fruit with granulated sugar and two cardamom pods (no lemon). The pineapple-cardamom combination is a revelation! Wonderful, even if I am still picking out fiber from my sorbet. Tue Sep 16 12:00:15 -0700 2003 1611972 0 Miele Maiale 1 1612075 Last fall I made pomegranate sorbet that was too hard (more like a granita), so I consulted the ever helpful Harold McGee. His followup to On Cooking, a book called The Curious Cook, has a great section on sorbets and such, with charts of sugar content, etc for many of the various fruits used in sorbet making. It helped me a lot (it turns out mine didn't have enough sugar). Tue Sep 16 13:08:30 -0700 2003 1611972 0 tsm