Name: Lemon Sherbert
Ingredients: 2 quarts water; 1 quart sugar; juice of 10 lemons; juice of 2 oranges; 1 teaspoon gelatin

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 ↓

Lemon Sherbert

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the water and sugar together until dissolved.
Add the juice of the lemons and oranges.
Dissolve the gelatin in a small amount of warm water and mix it in.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,778 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange + gelatintop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together463 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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 base and helps keep the sherbet soft rather than rock-hard when frozen.
Lemon juice: Provides the sharp acidity that defines the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Orange juice: Adds extra fruit flavour and sweetness alongside the lemon juice.
Gelatin: Gives the sherbet a smoother body and helps prevent large ice crystals from forming.