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 ↓
Raspberry Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Combine the juice of the raspberries and currants in a bowl.
Add the sugar, water, and lemon juice; mix well.
Strain the mixture to remove solids.
Freeze
Freeze the mixture until solid.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Currant + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,270 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
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
- Raspberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and colour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice softer.
- Currants
- Add a tart, pronounced fruit flavour.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the fruit flavour.
The step that matters
Strain the mixture to remove solids. Removing seeds and pulp leaves a smooth liquid, so the frozen ice has an even texture instead of a grainy one.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon):
- Orangefits better
- Limefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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