Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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
Infuse and flavour
Pour boiling water over the lemon peel and let it cool.
Mix in the juice of 6 lemons and add the lemon essence.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
Freeze
Freeze the strained mixture until solid.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Lemon peel
- Releases aromatic oils into the hot water, giving the ice its strong lemon aroma.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity and bright flavour that defines the water ice.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, keeping the ice softer and less rock-hard.
The step that matters
Freeze the strained mixture until solid. Freezing forms ice crystals, and their size sets the texture. Sugar lowers the freezing point, so the mixture stays partly soft and scoopable rather than freezing rock-hard.
“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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