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 ↓
Cherry Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Pound half the stones of the cherries in a mortar.
Combine the pounded cherries and stones with 1 pint of water and let sit for about 2 hours.
Squeeze the mixture through a bag to extract the juice over ½ cup of sugar.
Finish and freeze
Add the juice of 1 lemon to the mixture.
If desired, stir in ⅓ cup of brandy or red wine.
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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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,351 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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
- Cherries
- Provide the main flavour and colour, and the fruit juice that becomes the ice.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the ice so it is less hard and icy.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the cherry flavour.
- Brandy or red wine
- Optional; adds aroma and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice softer.
The step that matters
Freeze the mixture until solid. Sugar and alcohol lower the freezing point, so the mixture freezes slowly and unevenly, forming large ice crystals. Stirring during freezing helps create a smoother texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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