Why it works: Lemon and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓
Grape Water Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the infusion
Place the dried elder-flowers in a freezing pot and cover with boiling water.
Let it steep for 30 minutes, then strain through a sieve.
Make the ice
Add the juice of 2 lemons and sweeten with syrup to your liking.
Freeze the mixture, then stir in the white wine gradually.
Pour into molds and freeze until solid.
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 + white winetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
-
Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,235 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Syrup + white winetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together101 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
- Lemons
- Provide acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup and the floral infusion.
- Syrup
- Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen ice.
- White wine
- Adds flavour and alcohol, which lowers the freezing point and keeps the ice softer.
- Dried elder-flowers
- Provide a delicate floral aroma that flavours the water.
The step that matters
Stir in the white wine gradually after the first freeze. Alcohol lowers the freezing point, so adding wine to a fully set mixture can stop it from freezing firmly. Stirring it in gradually while partly frozen lets the ice keep its structure.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, white wine):
- Plumfits about as well
- Apricotfits about as well
- Applefits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, white wine. 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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