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Lemon Ice

A chilled lemon dessert made by freezing a lemon syrup with egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Lemon 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 Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Make a syrup by boiling 3 quarts of water and 3 quarts of sugar for 15 minutes, skimming off any foam.

  2. Let the syrup cool.

Freeze

  1. Add the juice of the lemons to the cooled syrup.

  2. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  3. Freeze the mixture, stirring every 5 minutes for 20-25 minutes.

  4. When partly frozen, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  5. Continue freezing until fully set.

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

Sugar
Dissolves into the syrup to add sweetness and keep the ice soft rather than rock-hard.
Lemons
Their juice adds sharp acidity and bright lemon flavour.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they add lightness and an airy, smooth texture when folded in.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites when partly frozen. If the mixture is still too liquid, the whites sink and separate; if it is too firm, they will not blend in evenly. Folding gently keeps the air from the whipped whites so the finished ice stays light.

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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