Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Lemon Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse the peels
Pare the lemons and place the peels in a gallon of brandy.
Let the peels stand in the brandy for 14 days.
Make the syrup
Make a syrup by mixing the juice of the lemons with 2 pounds of lump sugar.
Boil 10 gallons of water with 40 pounds of lump sugar for 30 minutes.
Cool the mixture in a tub.
Combine and age
Add the brandy, lemon peels, and syrup to the cooled mixture.
Seal the mixture in a cask and let it stand for 6 months.
Beat the whites of 6 eggs to a froth and mix with the cold water.
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 + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Lemons
- Peel supplies aromatic oils, while the juice adds sharp acidity to the wine.
- Lump sugar
- Sweetens the wine and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Brandy
- Raises the alcohol level, helping preserve the wine and drawing out the peel's aroma.
- Eggs
- Egg whites act as a fining agent, binding haze particles so they settle out and the wine clears.
The step that matters
Cool the mixture before adding the brandy. Adding brandy to hot liquid lets its alcohol and delicate aroma evaporate, and heat can dull the fresh lemon flavour. Cooling first keeps the spirit's character and the lemon's brightness in the finished wine.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, sugar, syrup, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar, syrup, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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