What helps to keeps a sorbet together please?

Basically, it's fruit fiber that holds a sorbet together.  Sugar is to keep it from getting too hard.

An ice cream machine would be a good tool to have in any kitchen.

If there is a KA brand mixer (in your kitchen) a good idea would be to buy the ice cream attachment.

I use mine occasionally and altho it is not the best, it is affordable and meets my needs (2-3 x per year)

Another idea would be to practice your recipe a few times.

If you get consistently poor results, a new recipe would be my next step.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=rival+ice+cream+maker&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvnse&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&biw=1098&bih=622&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=953069716999536084&sa=X&ei=XpMeUOSTA8ny0gH7yoGoCA&ved=0CKEBEPMCMAQ#ps-sellers

Rival brand Ice Cream maker is about $30 US. Very reasonable and works well.

The addition of some alcohol will also serve to keep the sorbet from getting too hard, as well as reinforce or complement the flavor.

hay sally,

just curious...how did/do you make your basil sorbet? what did you start with...a simple syrup? was it more of an ice than a sorbet? did it have cream in it?  sherbet, sorbet, granitas and ices get interchanged and confused for such a simple little thing

funnily, yesterday i made(experimented) with making a fruit sorbet, but mine was with summer melons, mango, chili,and vanilla vodka. i can only tell you what i did and what worked for me. i don't have an ice cream freezer, so after straining the melons, i proccessed them, strained again, added mango chili sauce and vanilla vodka and froze in a hotel pan. originally i was going for a granita so after an hour or so, i forked, then forked again after a few hours more...to make a long story longer, i changed my mind for whatever reason, so i 3/4 thawed the pan, then whisked with more vanilla vodka....put it all back in the FP, added some lavendar and just the tiniest bit of cream to take out the translucency of the melons, put into bowls and froze......it was then totally scoopable and smooth.  i think because i whisked/processed it the second time, it was much smoother and the alcohol helped it not to crystalize and also to 'round' it out. 

did you try rewhipping your sorbet? basically by rewhipping, you are doing the same thing an ice cream maker is, right? adding air.....did you try adding alcohol? abosute peppar would be interesting i think, and of course the easy breezy way is to buy lemon sorbet, add fresh basil to it, and refreeze it.....but that would be cheating!!!  do hope this helps in some way

joey

Put simply: 

Cold keeps a sorbet together. 

Sorbets are mostly water.  Water freezes.  A sorbet won't come together until it freezes; and when a sorbet gets too warm it won't keep together. 

BDL

What what WHAT?!  Warmth melts ice, sorbet and other frozen things??

Reading the OP's post, it's obvious the issue she's referring to is regarding emulsification - or lack thereof.