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 ↓
Strawberry Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil 3 cups of sugar with a little water to make a syrup.
Once boiling, add the juice of 5 or 6 lemons and 4 teaspoons of soaked gelatin.
Add the fruit and freeze
Stir in ½ box of crushed strawberries that have been sweetened.
Add enough water to make just under 1 gallon.
After slightly freezing, add the well-beaten whites of 2 eggs and stir rapidly.
Close the can and finish freezing.
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 mixture and keeps the ice soft by limiting hard ice crystal formation.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the strawberry flavour and balances the sweetness.
- Gelatine
- Helps set the mixture and gives it a smoother, less icy texture.
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and colour.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into the partly frozen mixture to add air and a lighter, fluffier texture.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten egg whites. Egg whites must be added only after the mixture has partly frozen and then stirred rapidly. If added too early, they deflate or blend in unevenly, and the whipped air that makes the ice light is lost.
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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