Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Cherry Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar and water together for 5 minutes.
Soak the gelatin in a little cold water, then add it to the hot syrup and let it cool.
Add the fruit and freeze
Add the juice of 2 lemons.
Press the cherries through the coarsest meat chopper, then add them along with their juice to the syrup.
Freeze the mixture.
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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Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,778 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Gelatin + lemontop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,215 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
- Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen mixture from freezing too hard.
- Gelatin
- Helps set the mixture and gives it a smoother, firmer body.
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavor, color, and texture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
The step that matters
Dissolve the gelatin fully into the hot syrup. Gelatin must be softened in cold water and then dissolved into warm liquid, or it can form lumps or uneven specks. Fully dissolved gelatin sets the mixture evenly as it cools and freezes.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, gelatin):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, gelatin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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