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 Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Peel the thin yellow rind from the lemons and orange.
Add the rinds to 1 quart of water and 2 cups of sugar.
Boil for 5 minutes, then cool the mixture.
Add juice and freeze
Squeeze the juice from the fruit and a couple more lemons.
Add the juice to the syrup, strain, and freeze.
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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Lemon + orangetop 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the ice and keeps it softer by lowering the freezing point.
- Lemons
- Provide the sharp acidity and main citrus flavour.
- Orange
- Adds aromatic citrus oils from the rind and extra juice flavour.
The step that matters
Boil for 5 minutes, then cool the mixture.. Boiling dissolves the sugar fully into the water and draws aromatic oils out of the rinds. Cooling the syrup before adding the juice helps keep the fresh citrus flavour bright and stops the mixture from warming before it freezes.
“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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