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 ↓
Cherry Water Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pound the cherries in a mortar to break the stones.
In a bowl, squeeze in the juice of the lemons.
Make and freeze the ice
Add the syrup, water, and cochineal; mix well.
Pass the mixture through a sieve and freeze until rich and firm.
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 + syruptop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Preserved sweet cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and body of the ice.
- Lemons
- Add acidity that brightens the sweetness and sharpens the flavour.
- Syrup
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point so the ice stays softer.
- Water
- Forms the liquid base that freezes into the ice.
The step that matters
Pass the mixture through a sieve. Sieving removes broken stone fragments and coarse cherry pulp left after pounding. Leftover pieces would make the frozen ice gritty and uneven in texture.
“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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