Name: Cherry Ice
Ingredients: 2 cups cherry juice; 1 ⅔ cups simple syrup; ⅓ cup water; 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Why it works: Cherry and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,301 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Cherry Ice

Ingredients

2 cups cherry juice
1 ⅔ cups simple syrup
⅓ cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

Mix cherry juice, simple syrup, water, and lemon juice in a bowl.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Cherry + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,301 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Cherry + syruptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together339 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Cherry juice: Provides the main cherry flavor and most of the liquid base.
Simple syrup: Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen texture softer by lowering the freezing point.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the cherry flavor.