Why it works: Syrup and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,235 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Cherry Water Ice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cherry juice
Press the cherries with a wooden spoon through a strainer to extract the juice.
Pour the spring water over the dregs to extract any remaining juice.
Flavour and freeze
Mix the cherry juice with the syrup, cochineal, lemon juice, and essence of kernels.
Chill the mixture in a suitable container until it reaches a slushy consistency.
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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Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,235 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red cherries
- Provide the main cherry flavour and the natural red colour of the juice.
- Syrup
- Adds sweetness and, by lowering the freezing point, keeps the ice soft and slushy.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the cherry flavour and balances the sweetness.
The step that matters
Chill until slushy. Freezing must stop at a slushy stage; if it sets solid, the ice becomes hard and grainy. Stirring during freezing breaks up ice crystals and keeps the texture fine, and the sugar in the syrup keeps the mixture from freezing too firmly.
“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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