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Dessert

Cider Ice

A frozen dessert of cider and brown sugar boiled with whole spices, strained, and frozen with ice and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cider Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil cider, brown sugar, cloves, allspice, and cassia buds for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

Freeze and serve

  1. Place the mixture in a freezer.

  2. Pack with ice and salt in a 2:1 ratio.

  3. Freeze for about 15 minutes.

  4. Remove the dasher and pack again.

  5. Serve in sherbet cups.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cassiatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + cassiatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cider + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together873 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Cider + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,683 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cider
Forms the liquid base and provides the apple flavor of the ice.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, and lowers the freezing point so the ice stays soft.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice notes as the cider is simmered.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes as the cider is simmered.
Cassia buds
Add warm, aromatic spice notes as the cider is simmered.

The step that matters

Pack with ice and salt in a 2:1 ratio. Salt lowers the melting point of the ice, making the surrounding brine colder than ice alone. This chill is what freezes the mixture, so an incorrect ratio slows freezing and can leave the ice too soft or too firm.

Swap the cassia

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, sugar, clove, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Cassiathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, sugar, clove, allspice. 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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