Name: Lemon Water Ice
Ingredients: 1 lemon, grated; 3 lemons, juiced; ½ cup syrup; 2 cups water

Why it works: Lemon and syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,235 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lemon Water Ice

Ingredients

1 lemon, grated
3 lemons, juiced
½ cup syrup
2 cups water

Directions

Prepare

Grate one lemon and juice three lemons.
Combine the grated lemon, lemon juice, syrup, and water in a bowl.

Strain and freeze

Strain the mixture to remove solids.
Freeze the mixture until it is firm.

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.

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.

Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 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

Lemon juice: Provides the sour, bright acidity that defines the flavor of the ice.
Syrup: Adds sweetness that balances the acidity and softens the texture by lowering the freezing point.
Lemon zest: Adds aroma and flavor from the oils in the grated peel.

“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.