Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Watermelon Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
Save all the juice from the watermelon and scrape the red pulp finely.
Add enough water to ensure a strong watermelon flavor.
Mix in 1 pound of sugar for every gallon of mixture.
Freeze
Pour the mixture into a freezer.
Once it begins to freeze, add the well-beaten egg whites.
Stir thoroughly from the bottom while freezing.
Adjust sweetness by adding more sugar if desired.
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.
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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Watermelon
- Provides the main flavor, color and liquid base of the ice.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice softer and less rock-hard.
- Egg whites
- Whipped foam traps air, giving the ice a lighter, smoother texture.
The step that matters
Adding the egg whites once freezing begins. Whites added too early or not stirred in thoroughly will not distribute evenly. Folding them into the partly frozen mixture traps air in small ice crystals, keeping the texture light instead of dense and icy.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.