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Dessert

Grape Fruit Ice

A frozen dessert made with grape fruit, citrus juices, sugar, and optional fruit or marshmallow additions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 28 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and banana match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,430 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the grapefruit sherbet base

  1. Put 2 cups sugar, 2 pints water, the grapefruit rind and one pint of water on the fire; let boil for five minutes.

  2. Squeeze juice from the lemons.

  3. When cool, add the remaining water and fruit juices.

  4. Put in the freezer, and when it begins to freeze, add the shredded grapefruit.

  5. Serve in glass cups with maraschino cherry garnish.

Prepare the sherbet

  1. Dissolve three cups of sugar in three cups of water over the stove.

  2. When cool, add three bananas, three oranges, and one pineapple.

  3. Add the juice of three lemons.

  4. When it begins to freeze, add the beaten whites of two eggs.

  5. Pass the bananas through a colander and finely chop the other fruits.

Make the marshmallow ice cream

  1. Cut one-half pound of marshmallows into small pieces.

  2. Roll one dozen macaroons very finely, drying them first in the oven if they are fresh.

  3. Dissolve two tablespoons of gelatin in three tablespoons of milk, stirring over the fire. Add this to the mixture.

  4. When ready to freeze, beat in three pints of cream and flavor with vanilla.

  5. After it is partly frozen, stir in one-half pound of chopped raisins.

Make the peppermint and chocolate creams

  1. Crush one scant pound of old-fashioned peppermint sticks very finely and dissolve them over the fire in one pint of milk.

  2. When cool, add three pints of cream. Beat for five minutes with an egg whip and freeze. The cream will be a delicate pink.

  3. Make a custard of the yolks of four eggs, one and one-half cups of sugar, and three cups of milk, with one-half cake of chocolate broken into pieces.

  4. Put the chocolate and milk together in a double boiler, stir until the chocolate is melted, pour over the eggs and sugar, and cook for two or three minutes.

  5. Cool, add one tablespoon of vanilla and one quart of cream; when it begins to freeze, add one-half pound of marshmallows cut into two or three pieces.

By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924). 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + bananatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Grapefruit + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

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

  5. Milk + bananatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,464 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Gelatin
Sets the marshmallow mixture so the ice cream holds a smooth, firm texture.
Eggs
Egg whites and yolks add body and a light, smooth texture to the frozen creams.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the frozen ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
Marshmallows
Soften and add chewy sweetness and body to the marshmallow ice cream.

The step that matters

Pour the chocolate custard over the eggs and sugar and cook gently. Eggs thicken when heated slowly; if the custard gets too hot or cooks too long it can curdle or turn grainy, so stir constantly over gentle heat.

Flavor stand-ins for the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, cream, vanilla, grapefruit, lemon, banana):

  1. Orangebetter flavor fit
  2. Strawberrybetter flavor fit
  3. Raspberrybetter flavor fit
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, cream, vanilla, grapefruit, lemon, banana. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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