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 ↓
Water Ices
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil sugar and water together until it forms a rich syrup, about 15 minutes with boiling water.
Let the syrup cool completely.
Add flavor and fold in egg whites
Add lemon juice and fruit puree to the cooled syrup.
Whip the egg whites until very light.
When the mixture begins to freeze, stir in the whipped egg whites.
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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Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,664 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Pineapple + raspberrytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together195 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, sweet).
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Lemon + raspberrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,109 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Orange + raspberrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together521 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
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 form a syrup that sweetens the ice and keeps it from freezing too hard.
- Egg whites
- Whipped foam adds lightness and a smoother, airier texture to the frozen mixture.
- Fruit puree
- Supplies the main flavor and moisture of the water ice.
The step that matters
Stir in the whipped egg whites when the mixture begins to freeze. If the whites are added too early, the mixture is still liquid and the foam deflates; if added too late, the mixture is too firm to blend evenly, leaving the ice dense and uneven.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, pineapple, orange, raspberry, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Peachfits better
- Blackberryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, pineapple, orange, raspberry, egg. 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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