Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemonade Iced
Ingredients
Directions
Make the lemonade
Make 1 quart of rich lemonade.
Make the ice
Whip the egg whites to a strong froth.
Mix the whipped egg whites well with the lemonade.
Freeze the mixture.
For delicate ices, mix the juice of morello cherries or currants with water and sugar, and prepare in the same way.
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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a froth, they trap air and give the frozen ice a light, airy texture.
- Rich lemonade
- Provides the main liquid and flavour base that freezes into the ice.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the ice and lowers its freezing point so it stays softer when frozen.
The step that matters
Whipping the egg whites to a strong froth. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold stiff foam; if they are underwhipped or deflated when folded in, the mixture loses air and the frozen ice becomes dense.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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