Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Boil water and cornstarch until the taste of starch is gone.
Add the juice of the lemons and sweeten to taste when the mixture is cold.
Leave the lemon rind in for a while.
Strain and freeze
Strain through a sieve 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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Lemons
- Provide the sour bright flavour, with the rind adding aroma.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the water slightly, giving the frozen ice a smoother texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the lemon's tartness.
The step that matters
Boil the water and cornstarch until the starch taste is gone. Cornstarch must be fully cooked so its granules swell and thicken the liquid. Undercooked starch leaves a raw, chalky flavour and a less smooth texture in the finished ice.
“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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