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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Pour 1 quart of boiling water over 2 pounds of sugar and let it dissolve.
Peel thin strips of the yellow rind from the lemons.
Add the strips to the liquid.
Prepare the lemons
Peel and remove all fibrous parts from the lemons.
Collect the seeds and tie them in a thin cloth.
Cook and test
Add the lemon pulp and the bag of seeds to the syrup.
Keep the kettle uncovered and let the mixture boil gently.
To check if it's done, place a small amount on a chilled plate; it should set.
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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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 and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps the marmalade set as water evaporates.
- Lemons
- Supply acidity and natural pectin, which help the marmalade gel and give it a bright flavor.
The step that matters
Testing for set on a chilled plate. Marmalade sets only once enough water has evaporated and sugar, acid and pectin are concentrated. Judging this by a cold plate test prevents a runny result or an overcooked, stiff one.
“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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