Name: Lemon Water-ice
Ingredients: 1 pound sugar; 1 pint water; rind of 3 lemons; rind of 1 orange; juice of 3 lemons; juice of 1 orange

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Water-ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

Boil 1 pound of sugar and 1 pint of water together.
Remove the yellow rind from the lemons and orange, then add it to the syrup.
Boil for 5 minutes, then let it cool.

Add the juice and freeze

Peel the lemons and orange, cut them in half, remove the seeds, and squeeze out the juice.
Mix the juice with the syrup and strain it.
Pour the mixture into a freezer and freeze until solid.

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.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Sugar: Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen ice softer and less hard.
Lemon juice: Provides acidity that brightens the flavor of the ice.
Orange juice: Adds sweetness and a rounder citrus flavor alongside the lemon.
Lemon rind: Oils in the peel add a strong, fragrant citrus aroma to the syrup.
Orange rind: Oils in the peel add a fragrant citrus aroma to the syrup.