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 ↓
Strawberry Water Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the stalks from the strawberries and press them through a sieve into a basin.
Add 1½ pints of water and ½ pound of powdered sugar; mix well.
Strain the mixture through a sieve and freeze until rich.
Put the mixture into molds and serve.
If not in season, use 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam and juice of 1 lemon.
Follow the same steps.
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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Sugar + strawberry jamtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together291 recipes
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Strawberry jam + lemontop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together84 recipes
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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main flavour and colour, and the fruit body of the ice.
- Powdered loaf sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and lowers its freezing point, keeping the ice softer.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the strawberry flavour.
Swap the strawberry jam
The recipe marks strawberry jam as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon):
- Orangefits better
- Limefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberry jamthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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