Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Steep the thin rind of 3 lemons in 1 quart of water until highly flavored.
Combine the lemon juice, sugar, and flavored water in a bowl.
Freeze the mixture until it is partly frozen.
Finish and freeze
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold them into the partially frozen mixture.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Whipped to a stiff froth, they add lightness and an airy, smooth texture to the frozen mixture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and lowers its freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer when frozen.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that gives the ice cream its tart lemon flavor.
- Lemon rind
- Infused into the water to carry concentrated lemon aroma into the base.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air, so they should be folded gently into the partly frozen mixture rather than stirred hard. Overmixing knocks out the air and makes the ice cream dense.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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