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 sugar
Boil clarified sugar until it reaches the crack stage.
Add 2-3 drops of lemon juice to prevent graining.
Remove from heat when it reaches the crack stage and dip the pan in cold water.
Let it stand briefly, then pour onto a marble surface rubbed with oil.
Shape and flavor
Cut the sugar into small pieces with scissors and roll them out quickly.
Optionally, add a drop of essence, such as citron, for flavor.
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.
-
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
- Clarified sugar
- Forms the glassy candy base that sets hard as it cools.
- Lemon juice
- Acid helps prevent the sugar from crystallizing into a grainy texture.
The step that matters
Remove from heat at the crack stage and dip the pan in cold water. Sugar must reach the crack stage to set hard and brittle. Cooling the pan in cold water stops the cooking quickly so the sugar does not overcook and darken or turn 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.
More barley sugar recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.