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
Make the syrup
Boil 3 pints of water and 1 quart of sugar until reduced to 1 quart, skimming off any scum.
Flavour and freeze
Remove from heat, let cool, then add the juice and rind of the lemons.
Let the mixture stand for 1 hour, then strain and pour into a freezer.
Before it begins to harden, stir in the beaten egg whites, then cover tightly 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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 water to make a syrup that sweetens the ice and keeps it from freezing rock hard.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity and bright flavour that define the water ice.
- Lemon rind
- Adds aromatic oils from the peel, deepening the lemon fragrance and flavour.
- Egg whites
- Whipped foam adds air and a lighter, smoother texture to the frozen mixture.
The step that matters
Stirring in the egg whites before the mixture hardens. If the base is already firm, the beaten whites will not blend evenly and stay as streaks; stirring while it is still slushy distributes the foam and creates a lighter, smoother texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- 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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