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Lemon Water Ice

A chilled lemon beverage made with sugar, water, syrup, egg whites, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Lemon Water Ice

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 ↓

Lemon Water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Rub the rind of the lemons on the sugar lumps.

  2. Squeeze the strained juice of the lemons over the sugar.

  3. Add the water and syrup to the mixture.

  4. Let it sit in a jug for 1-2 hours.

  5. Mix the mixture.

  6. Strain the mixture.

Freeze and finish

  1. Freeze the mixture.

  2. When it begins to set, stir in the beaten egg whites mixed with fine sugar.

  3. Leave the preparation in the ice until ready to serve.

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.

  1. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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 and rind oil that give the ice its sharp, aromatic flavour.
Egg whites
Whipped into the partly frozen mixture to add lightness and a smoother, airy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the ice and lowers its freezing point so it stays softly scoopable.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg whites when the mixture begins to set. If the mixture is fully frozen, the beaten whites cannot blend in evenly, leaving a dense, uneven texture. Adding them at the partly frozen stage lets them distribute and trap air.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. 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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