Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 ↓
Orange Water Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dissolve the gelatine in cold water and let it sit for 30 minutes.
Extract the oil from the oranges and lemons by rubbing the rind with lumps of sugar.
Pour boiling water over the dissolved gelatine.
Combine and freeze
Combine the juice from the oranges and lemons with the sugar and gelatine mixture.
Freeze the mixture until solid.
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.
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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Oranges
- Provide the juice and fragrant oil that flavour the ice.
- Lemons
- Add acidity that brightens the sweetness and sharpens the flavour.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the ice and, rubbed on the rind, lifts the citrus oil into the mixture.
- Gelatine
- Gives the mixture body and helps it hold a smoother, firmer texture.
The step that matters
Rubbing the rind with sugar. Citrus oil sits in the peel, so rubbing it into sugar lifts the aromatic oil out. Skipping this step leaves the ice tasting flatter and less aromatic.
“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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