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Dessert

Mille Fruit Water-ice

A fruit water ice made with water, clarified sugar, sherry, grape syrup, lemon and orange juice, lemon rind, and preserved fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mille Fruit Water-ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine water, clarified sugar, sherry, grape syrup, lemon juice, orange juice, and grated lemon rind in a bowl.

  2. Mix well and set the mixture to freeze.

Freeze and finish

  1. Once partially frozen, add the preserved fruit, cutting large pieces into smaller ones.

  2. Continue freezing until fully set.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Grape + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sherry + grapetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together229 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Sherry + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together823 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Clarified sugar
Provides sweetness and softens the ice, keeping it from freezing rock-hard.
Grape syrup
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour while contributing to a smoother texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavour.
Preserved fruit
Adds chunks of fruit texture and concentrated fruit flavour throughout the ice.

The step that matters

Add the preserved fruit once partially frozen. If the fruit goes in too early it sinks, and if added too late it stays in large icy pieces. Adding it at partial freeze suspends the pieces evenly, and cutting large pieces small keeps them easy to eat.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, sherry, syrup, lemon, orange):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sherry, syrup, lemon, orange. 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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