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Lemon Water Ice

A frozen lemon water ice made with sugar, water, lemon juice, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Lemon Water Ice

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

Prepare the syrup

  1. Wipe the lemons and rub sugar on them until they are deep yellow.

  2. Combine the water and sugar in a pan and boil until the syrup thickens enough to form a thread between your thumb and finger.

  3. Let the syrup cool.

Freeze the mixture

  1. Add the lemon juice.

  2. Pour the mixture into a freezing pot.

  3. Half freeze the mixture.

  4. Add the stiffly whisked egg whites. Mix thoroughly.

  5. Continue to freeze the mixture.

  6. Scrape frozen particles from the sides frequently for a smooth texture.

Serve

  1. Serve in hollowed-out ice or on small glass plates.

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.

  1. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Loaf sugar
Sweetens the ice and dissolves into the syrup, lowering the freezing point for a softer texture.
Lemons
Provide the lemon aroma and the sharp acidity that defines the flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds concentrated tartness and lemon flavour to the base.
Eggs
Whisked whites add air and body, giving a lighter, more foamy texture.

The step that matters

Scrape frozen particles from the sides frequently. Ice crystals form on the walls of the freezing pot first. Scraping them back into the mixture keeps crystals small, so the water ice freezes smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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