Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 mixture
Juice the lemons and combine the juice with the water.
Add sugar to taste, stirring until fully dissolved.
Freeze
Freeze the mixture until solid.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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
- Lemons
- Provide the juice that gives the drink its tart, acidic flavor.
- Water
- Dilutes the lemon juice to a drinkable volume and sets the final texture when frozen.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the lemon's acidity and softens the frozen texture.
The step that matters
Freeze the mixture until solid. Freezing slowly in a large, solid mass forms large ice crystals, giving a coarse, icy texture. Stirring or breaking up the mixture partway through freezing helps keep it smoother.
“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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