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 ↓
Orange Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Heat the cream in a double boiler.
Beat the egg yolks with ½ cup of sugar.
Stir the beaten yolks into the cream.
Strain the mixture.
Thicken the strained mixture over the fire.
Set the thickened mixture aside to cool.
Make the citrus syrup
Combine the remaining sugar with the lemon juice.
Add the grated peel of both oranges and lemons to the sugar-lemon mixture.
Make a boiling syrup from the sugar-lemon-peel mixture.
Strain the boiling syrup.
Cool the syrup on ice.
Combine and freeze
Add the cooled syrup to the cooled cream mixture.
Freeze 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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + orangetop 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
- Cream
- Provides fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness and emulsifying fat for a smooth texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice cream softer.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
- Orange and lemon peel
- Adds aromatic citrus oils that give the ice cream its fresh flavor.
The step that matters
Thicken the strained mixture over the fire. Heating the egg yolk custard gently, without boiling, lets it thicken as the proteins set. If it overheats, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, lemon, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits about as well
- Orangethe original
- Raisinfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, lemon, sugar. 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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