Name: Lemon Water Ice
Ingredients: 1 pound loaf sugar; 1 pint water; juice of 6 lemons; juice of 2 oranges; ½ pint cold water; 1 teaspoon infusion of hay-saffron or orange rind

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

Boil the sugar with water for 10 minutes.

Add the juices

Add the lemon juice, orange juice, and cold water.
Mix in the hay-saffron infusion or orange rind for color.

Freeze

Pour through a strainer into a freezer or ice machine.
Break 14 pounds of rough ice into small pieces.
Mix the ice with 4 pounds of coarse salt.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + saffrontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together538 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Orange + saffrontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together185 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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: Provides sweetness and body, softening the ice so it is not hard and brittle.
Lemon juice: Provides the sharp acidity that gives the water ice its characteristic flavor.
Orange juice: Adds sweetness and aroma alongside the lemon acidity.