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 Sherbet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the strawberries
Pour 1 pound of sugar over the strawberries and mash thoroughly.
Let stand to extract the juice.
Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove seeds and pulp.
Make the syrup
In a pot, combine the remaining 1 pound of sugar with the water and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat to cool.
Add the juice of the lemons to the cooled sugar water.
Stir in the strained berry juice.
Freeze
Freeze the 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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main flavor and juice that gives the sherbet its color and body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and draws juice out of the strawberries while helping keep the frozen texture softer.
- Lemons
- Add acidity that brightens the strawberry flavor and balances the sweetness.
The step that matters
Cool the sugar water before adding the juices. Adding lemon juice and berry juice to hot syrup can dull their fresh flavor and alter the texture, so the syrup should cool first.
“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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