Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Watermel Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Select a ripe and very red watermelon.
Scrape some of the pulp and use all of the juice.
Add a few seeds for appearance and sweeten to taste.
Freeze
Freeze the mixture as you would any other ice.
Beat the mixture frequently and vigorously with a large spoon.
If desired, add the whipped egg whites to the mixture just as it begins to congeal.
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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Watermelon
- Provides the main flavor, juice and pulp that freeze into the ice.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and softens its texture slightly as it freezes.
- Egg whites
- Optional; whipped whites add air and a lighter, fluffier texture to the frozen ice.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture frequently and vigorously. Stirring during freezing breaks up forming ice crystals, keeping the ice smooth and fine-textured rather than hard and icy.
“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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