Momma Haggis' Homemade 3-2-1- Lemon Sherbet

Strictly speaking, this should be called Momma and Poppa Haggis' Homemade 3-2-1 Lemon Sherbet because my sainted mother always got the ingredients ready, while my father always took care of freezing the mixture using the old hand-cranked ice cream maker. He'd pack it with ice, rock salt and a little water, then he'd burn off about a bizillion calories cranking away until it became sherbet.

While progress has not always been such a good thing, it has as far as the development of ice cream makers goes. While Dad had to crank his behind off, I simply push "start" and go back to my computer games.

I was busy blowing up Toledo yesterday (see post below), so I haven't had the chance to make any yet this weekend. But rest assured, it's on the docket for this evening.

Ingredients:

3 lemons

2 cups of sugar

1 quart of whole milk

Yup, that's it.

Are you ready? Here we go:

Zest one lemon

Juice 3 lemons and set aside

Add sugar to milk (or milk to sugar--it works either way) and stir until dissolved. This is easier said than done. You may want to zap your sugar in the food processor first to make it dissolve easier. Alternately, you can heat your milk, which will make the sugar dissolve more readily, but then you'll have to cool it before proceeding.

Add sugar/milk combination to ice cream freezer and start cranking

When sugar/milk mixture has the consistency of soft-serve ice cream, add lemon juice and zest. It's important that you not do this earlier, unless you prefer a curdled mess.

Here's where you can add food coloring if you so choose, but really, why bother?

Continue cranking until mixture re-thickens

Turn off ice cream maker and put sherbet in refrigerator freezer to firm up

Remove from freezer and eat with relish. No, not pickle relish, with people relish

Coming next week--recipe for people relish