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 ↓
Cherry Water Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Bruise the cherries in a mortar with the stones.
Add the lemon juice, water, clarified sugar, noyeau, and color.
Strain the mixture.
Freeze
Freeze 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.
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
- Kentish cherries
- Provide the main cherry flavor and juice, adding moisture to the water ice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the cherry flavor and balances the sugar.
- Clarified sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice softer.
- Noyeau
- Adds a distinct almond-like aroma that complements the cherry flavor.
The step that matters
Freeze until solid. Sugar lowers the freezing point, so the mixture freezes more slowly and forms smaller ice crystals. Freezing it fully solid makes the ice very firm, so it may need time to soften before serving.
“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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