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 ↓
Strawberry Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Mash the strawberries in a bowl with the lemon slice and let stand for 2 hours.
Put the mashed strawberries in a jelly bag and squeeze out all the juice.
Make the syrup
Make a syrup by heating the sugar and water until clear, then strain.
Add the strawberry juice to the syrup.
Freeze
When cold, freeze the mixture in a freezer.
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.
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).
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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main flavour and juice that forms the body of the ice.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with water, lowers the freezing point so the ice stays softer.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the strawberry flavour.
The step that matters
Let the syrup cool fully before freezing. Adding warm syrup or freezing while warm lets ice crystals form slowly and larger, giving a coarser texture. Chilling the mixture first helps it freeze smoothly.
“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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