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Lemon Ice

A frozen lemon dessert made by boiling corn starch, lemon juice, and sugar, then freezing the mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Lemon Ice

Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Dissolve corn starch in cold water and boil slowly until the taste and smell are gone, stirring frequently to prevent burning.

  2. Add the juice of the lemons while the mixture is hot.

  3. Optionally, add sliced lemon rind for extra flavor.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine colander.

Sweeten and freeze

  1. While still warm, add sugar to sweeten to taste, keeping in mind that the mixture will become more acidic as it cools.

  2. Freeze and serve like ice cream.

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. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 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

Corn starch
Thickens the liquid so the mixture sets smoothly and holds body when frozen.
Lemons
Provide the acidic, aromatic flavor that defines the ice.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and softens the texture of the frozen ice.

The step that matters

Sweeten while the mixture is still warm. Sweetness is perceived less strongly when cold, and acidity seems to rise as the mixture cools. Tasting and adjusting sugar while warm helps avoid a result that is too tart once frozen.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, sugar. 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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