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
Prepare
Zest 3 lemons on a lump of sugar and scrape it into a mixing bowl.
Juice 6 lemons and 1 orange, then add the juice to the bowl.
Add ½ pint of water and 1 pint of clarified sugar to the mixture.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
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 + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Supply the main acidity and aroma, with zest adding fragrant oils to the flavour.
- Clarified sugar
- Adds sweetness and, by lowering the freezing point, keeps the ice soft rather than rock-hard.
- Orange juice
- Adds extra juice and a mellow sweetness that rounds out the lemon's sharpness.
The step that matters
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve. Straining removes zest fragments, pulp and any sugar lumps so the ice freezes smooth and even. Leftover solids can create a grainy or icy texture.
“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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