Why it works: Syrup and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,235 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Lemon Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Add 8 ounces of tincture tartaric acid to 5 gallons of gum syrup.
Mix 1 ounce of lemon oil in 1 pint of alcohol.
Combine the oil mixture with the gum syrup.
Run the mixture through a charcoal filter.
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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Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,235 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gum syrup
- Provides the sweet, thick base that carries the other flavors.
- Tincture tartaric acid
- Adds tartness that balances the sweetness of the syrup.
- Alcohol
- Dissolves the lemon oil so it can mix into the water-based syrup.
- Lemon oil
- Supplies the lemon aroma and flavor.
The step that matters
Combine the oil mixture with the gum syrup.. Lemon oil does not dissolve in water-based syrup and will separate out if added directly. Dissolving it first in alcohol lets it disperse evenly through the syrup, so the flavor stays consistent throughout the batch.
“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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