Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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-peel Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Thinly pare the rind from the lemon after rubbing it with the sugar.
Place the lemon peel and sugar in a jug.
Steep and finish
Pour the boiling water over the peel and sugar.
Once cooled, decant the liquid.
Add the lemon juice and stir.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Lemon peel
- Provides the main aroma and flavour through the oils held in the rind.
- Lump sugar
- Sweetens the tea and, rubbed on the rind, helps lift its aromatic oils.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the tea.
The step that matters
Paring the rind thinly. The white pith under the lemon skin is bitter and can spoil the tea. Paring only the thin yellow outer layer keeps the aromatic oils and leaves the bitterness behind.
“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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