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 ↓
Portable Lemonade
twelve equal partsIngredients
Directions
Prepare the powder
Powder the tartaric acid and sugar very fine in a marble or Wedgewood mortar.
Mix the tartaric acid and sugar together.
Add the lemon essence a few drops at a time, stirring after each addition.
Once all the essence is added, mix thoroughly and divide into twelve equal parts.
Package and use
Wrap each part separately in a piece of white paper.
To use, dissolve one part in a tumbler of cold water for lemonade.
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
- Tartaric acid
- Provides the sour, tart taste that makes the drink taste like lemonade.
- Loaf sugar
- Balances the acidity with sweetness and helps the powder dissolve in water.
- Essence of lemon
- Supplies the lemon aroma and flavour.
The step that matters
Adding the lemon essence. Essence is strongly flavoured and oily, so adding it a few drops at a time while stirring spreads it evenly through the powder. Adding it all at once can leave pockets of concentrated flavour.
“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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