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Drink

China Orange Water Ice

A chilled beverage made from China orange zest, juice, lemon juice, syrup, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

China Orange Water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Zest one China orange and set aside.

  2. Juice three China oranges and one lemon.

Make and freeze

  1. Combine the orange zest, juices, syrup, and water in a bowl.

  2. Strain the mixture to remove pulp and seeds.

  3. Freeze the mixture until thick.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Orange + syruptop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,179 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

China oranges
Provide the main juice flavour and liquid base of the water ice.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point so the ice stays smooth and scoopable.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the citrus flavour and balances the syrup's sweetness.
China orange zest
Adds aroma from the fragrant oils held in the peel.

The step that matters

Freeze until thick, not solid. Sugar and acid lower the freezing point, so the mixture forms ice slowly. Freezing until thick keeps it smooth and scoopable, while freezing too long turns it hard and icy.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, syrup):

  1. Orangethe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits less well
  4. Vanillafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, syrup. 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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