Name: Lemon Ice
Ingredients: two cupfuls of sugar; a pint of water; six lemons

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Ice

Ingredients

two cupfuls of sugar
a pint of water
six lemons

Directions

Prepare the flavoring

Squeeze the juice of six lemons and grate the rind of three lemons and a large sweet orange.
Steep the juice and rinds in a container for a couple of hours.
Squeeze and strain the mixture through a towel.

Make and freeze

Add a pint of water and two cupfuls of sugar.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Turn the mixture into a freezer.
Let it stand longer, two or three hours.
If fruit jellies are used, gently heat the water until they melt, then cool and freeze.
Other flavors may be made in this manner, varying the flavoring to taste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

61Calories

0 gProtein

0 gFat

16 gCarbs

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
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
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.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

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 + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

Sugar: Sweetens the ice and lowers its freezing point so it stays softer and scoopable.
Lemons: Provide the acidity and bright flavor, with juice and rind both used.

“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.