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 ↓
Lemonade
Ingredients
Directions
Rasp two lemons with lumps of sugar.
If using granulated sugar, grate two lemons and leave the rind in the water for 1-2 hours.
Alternatively, steep the rind in water for 5 minutes.
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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness that balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Supplies the sour acidity that defines the lemonade's flavor.
- Lemon zest
- Lemon rind carries aromatic oils that flavor the water as it steeps.
The step that matters
Steeping the rind. The aromatic oils in the zest move into the water during steeping, so the time matters. Steeping too long can also draw bitter compounds from the white pith, which is why the rind should be kept separate from the pith as much as possible.
“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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