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 Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Squeeze the juice from the lemons and orange.
Steep the rinds in the juice for 2 hours.
Strain and sweeten
Squeeze the mixture through a towel, then strain the mixture through a towel.
Add 1 pint of water and 2 cups of sugar, stirring until dissolved.
Freeze
Pour the mixture into a freezer.
Let it stand for 2 to 3 hours.
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
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that gives the ice cream its bright lemon flavor.
- Lemon rind
- Adds aromatic oils from the peel, giving a stronger lemon fragrance and taste.
- Orange juice
- Adds extra fruit flavor and a mild sweetness that rounds out the citrus.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the texture by lowering the freezing point of the mixture.
The step that matters
Dissolve the sugar fully. Stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved keeps it from forming crystals later. Undissolved sugar can leave a gritty texture and uneven sweetness once the mixture freezes.
“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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