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 ↓
Lemon Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Juice the lemons and the orange, and grate the rinds of the lemons and the orange.
In a bowl, steep the rinds in the lemon and orange juice for 1 hour.
Strain the mixture, squeezing out the rinds to extract all the juice.
Mix in the sugar until dissolved, then add the water.
Freeze
Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker, opening it 3 times to stir and beat the mixture.
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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Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Lemons
- Provide the sour citrus juice and aromatic oil that give the ice its bright flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the ice and lowers its freezing point, keeping it softer and scoopable.
- Orange
- Adds extra juice and sweetness that softens the sharpness of the lemon.
The step that matters
Steeping the rinds in juice for 1 hour. The rinds hold aromatic oils and flavour compounds that dissolve into the juice during steeping. Skipping or shortening this step leaves the ice tasting flat and less citrusy.
“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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