Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓
Lemon Ice Water
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Make a syrup by boiling sugar and water in a bain‑marie or a jug in a saucepan of hot water.
Infuse and freeze
Rub the peel of the lemons onto lumps of sugar and add to the lemon juice.
Pour in the syrup and let it stand for 2 hours.
Strain the mixture and freeze it.
When the ice begins to set, stir in the beaten egg white mixed with a little fine sugar.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Sweetens the ice and, as syrup, keeps it smooth rather than hard and icy.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the flavour of the ice.
- Lemon peel
- Adds aromatic oils that give the ice its fragrant lemon character.
- Egg white
- Its beaten foam adds lightness and a softer, airier texture to the freezing ice.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten egg white once the ice begins to set. If the mixture is fully frozen, the foam cannot blend in and the ice stays dense; if it is still liquid, the whites sink and separate. Timing at the first sign of setting keeps the foam evenly dispersed.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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