Food and Recipes Recipes Muscadine Sorbet The Southeast's native grape is in its prime at the start of fall. Enjoy it scoop by frosty scoop during the season. By John Somerall John Somerall John Somerall is a highly trained professional chef with over a decade of cooking and recipe writing experience. John has a passion for all things related to food. He has a profound understanding of what makes food taste great and look amazing, while also being able to translate difficult recipes into manageable feats for the home cook. Although John is no longer testing and writing recipes for Dotdash Meredith brands, he is still an active private chef and freelance recipe tester and developer. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Published on August 13, 2022 Print Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Photographer Victor Protasio, Food Stylist Emily Nabors Hall, Prop Stylist Christina Dailey Active Time: 15 mins Total Time: 6 hrs 30 mins Servings: 6 Jump to recipe With plenty of hot Southern days left between Labor Day and Halloween, this deeply mauve muscadine sorbet is the perfect treat to keep stashed in your freezer in the fall. Native to the South, muscadines grow wild in forests (and even some backyards!), but they're also farmed, which means you can find them seasonally in grocery stores in addition to farmers' markets. Sweeter than commercial grapes, muscadines have a tangy, almost spicy scent, along with thick yet edible (albeit chewy) skins and seeds that most folks spit out. This easy sorbet recipe uses a standard blender to process the whole muscadines, which are then strained to yield plenty of sweet-tangy juice. Combined with a little lemon juice and simple syrup and then processed in an electric ice cream maker, this eye-catching sorbet will be the talk of our next block party or tailgate. Ingredients 1 cup water ½ cup granulated sugar 8 cups (about 30 oz.) fresh muscadines (without stems) 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon) Directions Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan and over medium; cook, whisking often, until sugar is dissolved, 2 to 3 minutes. Place muscadines in a blender; blend until almost smooth, 15 to 30 seconds. Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl, pressing on solids, to yield 2 cups juice. Discard solids. Whisk sugar mixture and lemon juice into muscadine juice; chill, uncovered until cold, 2 hours. Pour mixture into a frozen freezer bowl of a 1 1/2-quart electric ice cream maker; proceed according to manufacturer's instructions. (Instructions and times may vary.) Transfer to an airtight freezer-safe container; freeze at least 4 hours or up to 1 month. This recipe originally appeared in the September 2022 issue. Print