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Lemon Ice

A chilled lemon dessert made with sugar syrup, water, lemon zest, juice, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Lemon Ice

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 ↓

Lemon Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Grate the lemon rinds into a bowl and squeeze in the juice.

  2. Make a boiling syrup with the sugar and half the water.

  3. Pour the hot syrup over the lemon zest and juice.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

  5. Add the remaining water.

Freeze and finish

  1. Strain the lemonade into a freezer and freeze as usual.

  2. Whip the egg whites to a firm froth.

  3. Add the whipped egg whites to the mixture.

  4. Beat the mixture.

  5. Freeze again.

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Sugar
Dissolves into the boiling syrup, providing sweetness and softening the icy texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to a firm froth, they add air and a light, smooth texture to the frozen ice.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity and bright flavor that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Lemon rinds
Grated zest adds aromatic lemon oils and extra flavor to the mixture.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites to a firm froth. Egg whites trap air when beaten, and under-whipped whites will not hold that air, leaving a dense ice. Folding them in gently keeps the lightness.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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