Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓
Lemon Water Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil water and sugar in a saucepan for 10 minutes, reserving 6 lumps of sugar.
Rub the zest from the lemons with the reserved sugar.
Strain the lemon juice, ensuring it measures ⅓ cup.
Freeze
Once the syrup is cold, add the lemon juice and freeze.
When half frozen, fold in the whipped egg whites.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the ice and keeps it soft by lowering its freezing point.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that gives the ice its tart flavour.
- Lemon zest
- Adds aromatic lemon oils that sharpen the citrus flavour.
- Egg whites
- Whipped air folded in adds a light, airy texture to the frozen mixture.
The step that matters
Fold in the whipped egg whites when half frozen. If the mixture is still liquid, the whites lose their air and the ice turns dense. If it is frozen solid, the whites cannot blend in evenly and leave lumps.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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