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Dessert

Strawberry Water Ice

A frozen dessert made from strawberry juice or pulp, syrup, lemon juice, cochineal, water, and optional egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Strawberry Water Ice

Why it works: Strawberry and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,206 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Strawberry Water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Press the strawberries through a strainer to obtain the juice or pulp.

Freeze and set

  1. Mix the strawberry juice, syrup, lemon juice, cochineal, and water.

  2. Work the mixture in a freezer until sufficiently frozen.

  3. Set the ice in its mold.

  4. For a richer texture, fold in the egg white to create Italian meringue before serving.

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.

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.

  1. Strawberry + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,206 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Strawberry + syruptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together332 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Strawberry + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,509 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Strawberry juice or pulp
Provides the main strawberry flavour and colour base of the ice.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point so the ice stays soft rather than rock-hard.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the strawberry flavour.
Egg white
Whipped into Italian meringue to lighten the texture of the finished ice.

The step that matters

Working the mixture in the freezer. Freezing must be stopped once the mixture is partly frozen and slushy; if it freezes solid, the ice becomes hard and icy. Working it as it freezes breaks up ice crystals and keeps the texture smooth.

Swap the strawberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, lemon, egg):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Strawberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, lemon, egg. 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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