Name: Lemon Water Ice
Ingredients: Juice of 6 lemons; 2 teaspoons lemon extract; 1 quart water; 1 pound powdered sugar; ½ cup rich, sweet cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Lemon Water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

Juice the lemons and combine the juice with lemon extract, water, powdered sugar, and cream.
Strain the mixture to remove any pulp.

Freeze

Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker 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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + creamtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,640 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and sugar 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

Lemons: Lemon juice gives the ice cream its bright, tart acidity.
Lemon extract: Adds concentrated lemon aroma that deepens the citrus flavor.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the base and softens the texture of the frozen ice cream.
Cream: Adds fat, which makes the ice cream rich and creamy rather than icy.