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 ↓
Barley Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a pan, combine sugar and water, and bring to a boil.
Once it reaches the 'Ball' stage, add lemon juice and continue boiling until it reaches the 'Caramel' stage.
Remove from heat and stir in lemon essence.
Shape and store
Pour the mixture onto a greased marble slab.
Once nearly cold, cut into strips and twist them with your fingers.
Allow to cool completely, then store in closed tin boxes.
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
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the glassy, brittle candy structure as it cooks to the caramel stage.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can cook evenly without crystallizing early.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that helps keep the sugar syrup from crystallizing.
The step that matters
Taking the syrup to the caramel stage. Sugar syrup darkens and hardens quickly near the end of cooking. Stopping at the right stage controls brittleness and flavour, while overcooking can scorch it and taste bitter.
“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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