Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fruit Ices
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Mash the prepared fruit with a wooden spoon.
Add ½ cup sugar and lemon juice to the fruit, and let it stand in a cool place for at least 1 hour.
If a clear ice is desired, squeeze the mixture through a cloth; otherwise, rub it through a sieve.
Make the syrup
For the syrup, boil 1 pound sugar and 1 pint water for 5 minutes, then cool.
Taste the fruit mixture and add enough syrup to make it very sweet.
Freeze and finish
Dilute the fruit mixture with an equal amount of ice water, then freeze.
Whip the egg white and 3 tablespoons sugar until stiff and glossy.
Add the meringue to the mixture when it is half frozen.
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.
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 + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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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Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,235 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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
- Fruit
- Provides the main flavour, colour and body of the ice.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and lowers its freezing point so the ice stays soft.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the fruit flavour.
- Egg white
- Whipped into meringue to lighten the texture of the frozen ice.
The step that matters
Add the meringue when half frozen. If the mixture is fully frozen, the meringue cannot blend in evenly and the ice turns dense. Adding it partway through keeps the mixture soft enough to fold in air, giving a lighter texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, 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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