Why it works: Lemon and syrup 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
Prepare
Filter the lemon juice through blotting paper.
Boil the syrup until it reaches a small crack stage.
Make the syrup
Add the lemon juice to the syrup.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a pearl stage.
Skim off any foam, then remove from heat.
Let it cool, then bottle it.
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 + syruptop 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
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity and bright lemon flavour that defines the syrup.
- Syrup
- Provides the sweetness and the thick, body-giving base that holds the lemon flavour.
The step that matters
Boiling the mixture to the pearl stage. Sugar concentration determines thickness and shelf stability. Boiling to the pearl stage cooks off excess water so the syrup sets properly as it cools. Stopping early leaves it thin and more likely to spoil; overcooking makes it too thick.
“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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