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Wine Ices

A frozen dessert made by freezing wine, citrus zest, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Wine Ices

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Zest the lemons and orange over a lump of sugar in a mixing vessel.

  2. Juice the lemons and orange, then add the juice to the vessel.

  3. Pour in the wine and water, then add the clarified sugar.

Freeze

  1. Mix well and freeze until solid.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Wine + orangetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Wine
Adds liquid and flavour, and its alcohol keeps the ice softer after freezing.
Lemons
Provide acidity and aromatic oils from the zest, balancing the sweetness.
Orange
Adds aromatic oils from the zest and a mild sweetness with its juice.
Clarified sugar
Sweetens the mixture and lowers its freezing point, so the ice stays softer.

The step that matters

Mix well and freeze until solid. Mixing spreads the sugar and acid evenly through the liquid before it freezes. Even distribution keeps the ice from setting in uneven pockets and helps it freeze smoothly.

“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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