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Orange Water Ice

A frozen beverage made from sugar, lemons, oranges, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Orange Water Ice

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a large pan, combine the sugar and the grated yellow rind of the oranges, avoiding the bitter white pith.

  2. Rub the grated rind into the sugar, then pour in the juice and strained pulp of the lemons and oranges.

  3. Mix thoroughly, add the water, and stir well to dissolve the sugar.

Freeze

  1. Freeze the mixture until solid.

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.

  1. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Dissolves to sweeten the mixture and lowers its freezing point, keeping the ice soft rather than rock-hard.
Lemons
Add acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavour.
Oranges
Supply juice for flavour and orange rind for aroma.
Water
Provides the liquid base that freezes into the ice's icy texture.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar fully. Undissolved sugar crystals stay gritty and uneven in the frozen ice. Stirring until clear ensures the sugar is evenly spread, which sets sweetness and texture throughout.

“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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