Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Strawberry Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
In a large pot, combine 2 gallons of water and 14 lbs of sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
Add 1 oz of citric acid solution and mix well.
In a separate bowl, whip 4 egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold the whipped egg whites into the sugar mixture.
Freeze and serve
Freeze the mixture until firm, then stir in 1 quart of whole strawberries.
Serve chilled, ensuring the strawberries are visible.
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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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the ice and lowers its freezing point so it stays softer when frozen.
- Citric acid solution
- Adds tartness that brightens the strawberry flavor.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airy lightness and help create a smooth texture.
- Crushed strawberries
- Provide the main strawberry flavor and color throughout the mixture.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whipped whites; stirring hard deflates them, leaving a dense rather than light 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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