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Grape Water Ice

A frozen beverage made with elder flowers, lemon juice, syrup, and Madeira wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Grape Water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the infusion

  1. Pour boiling water over elder flowers and cover tightly.

  2. Let steep for 40 minutes, then drain the water.

  3. Add lemon juice and syrup to the drained water.

Freeze and mold

  1. Freeze the mixture.

  2. Once frozen, pour in Madeira wine gradually.

  3. Select clean molds.

  4. Fill molds with the ice mixture.

  5. Cover with paper.

  6. Pack in ice and salt for 1 hour.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Syrup + madeira winetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + madeira winetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together466 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

Elder flowers
Provide the floral aroma that flavours the steeped water.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point so the ice stays softer.
Madeira wine
Adds aroma and depth, and lowers the freezing point of the mixture.

The step that matters

Pour in the Madeira gradually once frozen. Alcohol lowers the freezing point, so adding wine to a mixture that is already frozen can stop it from setting properly and leave it slushy or uneven. Adding it gradually, after freezing, lets the mixture be blended in and keeps the texture consistent.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, madeira 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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