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
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar and water together.
Remove the yellow rind from 3 lemons and the orange, and add it to the syrup.
Boil for 5 minutes, then let it cool.
Add the juice and freeze
Squeeze the juice from the orange and lemons, and add it to the cool syrup.
Strain the mixture through a thin cloth and freeze.
Pack the freezer like you would for ice cream, but do not stir continuously.
Turn the crank a few times, then let it rest; repeat until the ice is frozen.
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.
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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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the ice and lowers its freezing point so it stays soft and scoopable.
- Lemons
- Provide the acidity and bright flavor that define the ice.
- Orange
- Adds sweet citrus aroma and flavor alongside the lemons.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar into syrup and forms the body of the ice.
The step that matters
Let the syrup cool before adding the juice. Adding juice to hot syrup can dull its fresh citrus flavor and begin melting or warming the mixture, so it should be cool before freezing.
“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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