Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓
Raspberry Water Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Combine the raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a bowl.
Mash the mixture and let it stand for 1 hour.
Press the mixture through a sieve to remove seeds.
Add the water to the raspberry juice and mix well.
Freeze
Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.
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.
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 + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Red raspberries
- Provide the main flavour and colour, and the fruit juice that forms the ice.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point, keeping the ice softer.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the raspberry flavour and balances the sweetness.
- Water
- Dilutes the fruit juice to the right concentration for a light, icy texture.
The step that matters
Pressing the mixture through a sieve. Pressing removes the seeds and pulp that would otherwise give a gritty texture. Sugar and acid in the juice also affect how the ice freezes, so the mixture should be fully strained and well mixed before churning.
“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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