Why it works: Lemon and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
A New Ice Cream
two personsIngredients
Directions
Prepare the melons
Select small cantaloupes or nutmeg melons, one for each two persons you wish to serve. Cut them in half, remove the seeds, and with a silver spoon scrape out the soft pulp, measure it and sweeten it.
Freeze the cream
Freeze twice as much sweetened cream as you have melon pulp; when it is half frozen, add the pulp.
Freeze very hard. Serve it in rounded pieces, cut out with the spoon, each in one-half of the melon rind which has been saved.
Add lemon, sugar and eggs
To one quart of water, add the juice of four lemons. If they are not very juicy, use five.
Sweeten with about a pint and a quarter of sugar, but taste it to be sure it is right.
When half frozen, add the whites of two eggs, well beaten.
Freeze hard and pack.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
- Melon pulp
- Provides the main flavour and body of the ice cream.
- Cream (in the method)
- Adds fat, which makes the frozen texture smooth and rich.
- Sugar (in the method)
- Sweetens the mixture and keeps it softer when frozen.
- Lemons
- Add acidity that brightens the melon flavour.
- Eggs
- Whites beaten in add air, giving a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Adding the pulp when the cream is half frozen. If the cream is fully liquid or fully solid, the pulp and beaten egg whites will not blend evenly. A partly frozen base lets them mix through smoothly and hold air, so the texture stays light and uniform.
“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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