www.Sweetstall.com offers sherbet lemons and strawberry lemons, together with a host of other sweets. Click on the link to visit or type www.sweetstall.com to visit their website.

 

SHERBET LEMONS or LEMON SHERBETS which ever way you prefer!

 

Welcome to SherbetLemons.com where you can learn about all kinds of interesting information about sherbet lemons, lemon sherbets, sherbet, lemons, and everything related. The information includes the history of sherbet, the history of sherbet lemons, numerous recipes concerning making sherbet drinks and sweets, together with links to sites that might also be of interest to the lemon sherbet fan.

 

Where was the idea for such a website inspired?

When I was attending school, it was almost a daily task to visit the local sweetshop for a 10 pence mix. Thinking back, it would take me twenty minutes to pick the sweets that I wanted in the bag. The shopkeepers were obviously very patient! Sherbet lemons were typically stored in glass jars on the shelves of our sweetshop, together with a vast variety of other hard boiled sweets, mints, and goodies. I often wondered how sherbet lemons were made; did they put the lemon outer shell on first and then fill in the sherbet centre, or did they put the sherbet in first and surround it with a lemon shell? Later in life I find myself spending hours travelling around the country so I have created this site using some of my “spare time”. I hope you enjoy it, and remember if you have any articles, recipes, or information concerning sherbet lemons or sherbet, please do get in touch.

 

 

 

Fancy a zinging sherbet lemon drink?

This recipe can be adapted to individual tastes, you may find you don’t like cinnamon, or cloves, so these can be removed from the ingredients if you desire. There are more recipes at the bottom of this page.

 

What do you need?

Start off with about a dozen lemons, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom pods, and water.

 

How do I make lemon sherbet?

  • Extract the lemon juice from the lemons into a jug or glass bowl.
  • Assess the amount of lemon juice that you were able to squeeze from the lemons and add twice the amount of hot water to the lemon juice.
  • Transfer to a pan, and bring to the boil. Once boiling let the lemon flavoured juice simmer whilst adding the cinnamon sticks, cloves and cardamom pods to taste.
  • After five to ten minutes, turn off the heat and scoop out the spices.
  • Add sugar to the mixture and stir well.
  • Refrigerate the lemon sherbet mixture.
  • Once cooled, this will provide you with a concentrate that can be diluted by water or soda. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

The History of Sherbet

 

Sherbet has been and still is today one of the most widespread drinks in the Muslim world. Francis Bacon was one of the first to taste “sherbet” in 1626 giving us the first appearance of the word “sherbet”.

Sherbet appears as a refreshing and medicinal drink in “The Thousand and One Nights”. In 1813, Lord Byron wrote “Give me a sun, I care not how hot, and sherbet, I care not how cool, and my Heaven is as easily made as your Persian’s.”

Sherbet is made from fruit juices or extracts of flowers or herbs combined with sugar and water. This forms a syrup which can be diluted at a later time with water, ice, snow, or even soda. As alcohol is forbidden in Islam, sherbet became one of the most important beverages in Muslim cultures, and is even part of every day language. Children are “sharbaataat” – “cuties” or “sweethearts”. Coffee and tea can be served “sharbaat” – very sweet.

The reason behind the popularity of sherbet is that until the early 20th century, there were few means of preserving and transporting fresh fruit. Refrigeration was only available to the very rich, whilst the horse was the measure of speed and distance. Fruit remained seasonal and local except when they could be either dried or reduce to liquid essence in the form of a syrup.

Ottoman Turks drank serbet before and during each meal, and to this very day the Haci Abdullah restaurant in Istanbul’s Beyoglu district servers serbet called karisik komposto. This is a rose coloured drink made from the syrup of quince, apple, pear, peach, and apricot mixed with iced spring water.

In villages in eastern Turkey, it is still true today that, after a dowry is agreed on, the groom’s family comes to the brides house and out comes a long-spotted brass or copper ewer, called an ibrik, filled with gul serbett, or rose sherbet. The woman who has “drunk sherbet” has accepted the grrom’s suit. Far across Asia, in India and Afghanistan as well, once the groom’s family has offered presents, the bride’s family reciprocates by offering gol sharbat.

Not only marriage, but also births and circumcisions demand sherbet. As for special occasions, you should soon be offering logusa serbeti, a cooured serbet flavoured with cloves and other spices, which is offered to visitors fater the birth of a child. In Egypt one is served finjan erfeh when visiting a newborn child.

During Ramadan, in the houses of persons of the higher and middle classes, the stool of the supper tray is placed in the apartment in which the master of the house receives his visitors a few minutes before sunset. With these are also placed several kullehs (or glass cups) of sherbet of sugar and water – usually one or two more cups than there are persons in the house to partake in beverages in case of visitors coming unexpectedly. Immediately after the call to evening prayer, which is chanted four minutes after sunset, the mast and such of his family or friends as happen to be with him drink a glass of sherbet each.

At the end of the 19th century came America’s craze for carbonated drinks. This was the source of Coca-Cola, which first spread across the country through drugstores and pharmacies. Spreading abroad, Coca-Cola began operating bottling plants in the Philippines, and China in 1927, Singapore in 1934, Malaysia in 1936, Morocco and Tunisia in 1947, Pakistan in 1953, Sri Lanka in 1960, and Turkey in 1965.

For a while the two types of soft drinks, western and eastern vied for position in sherbet shops and among street vendors in the Middle East. Over time, however, western soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi came to dominate, and now they are often served not just with western fast food meals, but also with traditional dishes. The practical need for fruit, herb, and flower based sherbets has been outdated. Thanks to modern refridgeration, glass bottles, and specialised containers like Tetra Pak, “fresh” frozen and refrigerated juices can be shipper to supermarkets worldwide and brought home to refrigerators.

 

 


Karışık Komposto

Fruit Compote Sherbet

3 large pomegranates

½ cup sugar, divided

4 cups water, divided

2 large quinces

3 cloves

1 stick cinnamon

2 large tart apples

 

Break the pomegranates into halves, then divide them into small sections. Remove the seeds into a bowl, working with fingertips and separating them from the skin and membrane. Reserve half of the seeds. Put the remaining ones in a non-corroding bowl, place it in the kitchen sink, and crush the seeds with one hand. Put the mixture through a sieve and let stand at least 2 hours for the sediment to settle. Then strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve and chill.

Dissolve 1¼4 cup sugar in 2 cups water in a saucepan. Peel the quinces and quarter them, cutting each piece into 3 or 4 slices. Remove the cores and hard centers, put them in the syrup with quince seeds, cloves and cinnamon, cover and cook slowly until the fruit is tender. Remove the quinces from the syrup and reduce the syrup to 1 cup. Remove from heat and strain. Put the quinces in the reduced syrup in a bowl, cover and chill.

Peel the apples, quarter them, then cut each piece into 3 or 4 slices and remove the cores. Cook them in a syrup made with 2 cups water and 1¼4 cup sugar until they are tender and translucent. Remove the apples from the syrup and reduce the syrup to 1 cup. Put the apples in the syrup, cover and chill in a bowl. When you are ready to serve, remove the pieces of fruit from the bowl.

 

 

Finjan Erfeh

“Welcome Cup”

(From Muslim World Cookbook by The Muslim Student Association of the United States and Canada)

4 cups water

1 tablespoon whole anise seeds

2 pieces ginger root, bruised 2 whole cloves

2 cinnamon sticks

4 tsp. sugar, or more

4 walnuts or almonds

 

Boil spices in water until it is dark colored. Put sugar and one nut in each cup. Serves 4.

 

 

Sharab Loomi ma Ward

Lemon and Rose Sherbet

(From The Complete United Arab Emirates Cookbook by Celia Ann Brock-Al Ansari)

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

3 cups water

sugar to taste

3 teaspoons rose water

a drop of pink food coloring

mint leaves for garnish

 

Combine all ingredients in blender and blend for 30 to 60 seconds. Taste for sugar. Leave in fridge and serve with ice cubes,  garnished with the mint leaves. This cold drink is served in tall glasses with ice cubes; more lemon may be added if a stronger

flavor is required. Made and served every evening during Ramadan.

 

 

Visne şerbeti

Sour Cherry Sherbet

(From The Sultan’s Kitchen: A Turkish Cookbook by Özcan Ozan)

2 cups sugar

1 ½ pounds fresh sour cherries

5 cups water

 

Combine the sugar with water in a medium-size saucepan and stir the mixture over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add cherries and simmer for about 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the cherries from the pan. Pass them through a strainer, pressing them to extract all the juice. Discard the cherries. Chill the juice for at least 30 minutes and serve over crushed ice.

 

 

If you would like to buy the sherbet lemon sweets that we spoke about at the top of the page, I have used a great company called sweetstall.com whose website is www.sweetstall.com. They sell a vast array of sweets including sherbet lemons and strawberry lemons.