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Dessert

Damson-water Ice

A chilled dessert made by simmering damsons in syrup, lemon juice, and Noyau, then freezing to a smooth ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,235 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Damson-water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup base

  1. Heat 1 pint of syrup in a preserving pan.

  2. Add 1 quart of damsons and simmer gently until well done.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

Flavour and freeze

  1. Stir in the juice of 1 or 2 lemons and 3 or 4 drops of Noyau.

  2. Freeze the mixture by working it until smooth.

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.

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. Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Damsons
Provide the fruit pulp and tart flavour that give the ice its character.
Syrup
Supplies sweetness and, when frozen, softens the ice so it stays scoopable.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the fruit flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Freeze the mixture by working it until smooth. Working the mixture while it freezes breaks up ice crystals, giving a smooth texture instead of a coarse, grainy one.

“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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