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 ↓
Fine Gum Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Scrape off any spots from the gum-dragon with a knife.
Wash the gum in a pan with water twice.
Add fresh water to dissolve the gum, covering it by 1 to 2 inches, and let it stand for 24 hours.
Crush the gum with a spatula and strain it through a cloth.
Pound the strained gum in a mortar, adding fine powdered sugar gradually.
Ensure all equipment is clean for the best results.
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
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