Name: Lemon Ice
Ingredients: 1 cup water; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup lemon juice; 1 tablespoon lemon zest

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 ↓

Lemon Ice

Ingredients

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the syrup

Combine water and sugar in a saucepan.
Heat until sugar dissolves completely.
Remove from heat.
Let the mixture cool.

Freeze

Stir in lemon juice and lemon zest.
Pour the mixture into a shallow dish.
Freeze the mixture.
Stir every 30 minutes until fully frozen and fluffy.

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.

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.

Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Sugar: Dissolves into the water to make a syrup that sweetens the ice and keeps it soft.
Lemon juice: Provides the acidity and bright flavour that define the dish.
Water: Dissolves the sugar and forms the liquid that freezes into ice crystals.