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 Water Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Dissolve the sugar in the water.
Grate the rind of 2 lemons and boil it in a little of the water for 10 minutes.
Finish and freeze
Let the mixture cool, then add the juice of all the lemons.
Mix everything together, strain, and freeze.
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).
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 sweeten the ice and keep it from freezing rock-hard.
- Lemons
- Supply the juice for sharp acidity and the rind for aroma.
- Water
- Forms the liquid base that freezes into the ice.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before adding the lemon juice. Lemon juice is acidic and its fresh flavour and aroma fade when heated, so adding it to a hot mixture dulls the taste. Cooling first keeps the lemon bright.
“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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