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Grape Water Ice

A frozen beverage made from elderflowers, lemon juice, syrup, and white wine.

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

Make the base

  1. Place the dried elderflowers in a freezing pot and cover with boiling water.

  2. Let it steep for 30 minutes, then strain through a sieve.

  3. Add the juice of 2 lemons and sweeten with syrup to your liking.

Freeze

  1. Once frozen, mix in the white wine gradually.

  2. Pour the mixture into molds and freeze.

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 + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Syrup + white winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Dried elderflowers
Provide the floral aroma that defines the flavor of the ice.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus flavor that balances the sweetness.
Syrup
Adds sweetness to balance the lemon's acidity.
White wine
Alcohol lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice softer and easier to scoop.

The step that matters

Mix in the white wine once frozen. Alcohol lowers the freezing point of water. Adding the wine too early can stop the mixture from freezing properly, so it is stirred in gradually after the base has partly set.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Plumfits about as well
  2. Apricotfits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. 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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