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
Place the clarified sugar in a saucepan and heat gently until it boils.
Continue boiling until it reaches the hard crack stage (300°F or 150°C).
Wet a wooden skewer in cold water, dip the skewer into the boiling sugar, then quickly immerse the skewer in very cold water for about 30 seconds.
Check if the sugar comes off easily and is brittle.
If it is not brittle, boil again until ready.
Add the essence of lemon and lemon juice.
Heat again until brittle.
Shape and dry
Pour the mixture onto a marble slab or oiled tin sheet.
Once cool enough, cut into strips about 1 inch wide with scissors.
Before it hardens, twist the strips.
Place the twisted strips on an oiled tin sheet to dry.
After the oil is absorbed, pack the candy into air‑tight tins to prevent stickiness.
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
- Clarified sugar
- Forms the glassy candy base that sets brittle as it cools.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the candy.
The step that matters
Testing for the hard crack stage. Sugar must reach the hard crack stage, around 300°F (150°C), to set brittle when cooled. If it is undercooked it stays sticky and chewy, so the skewer test is repeated until the sugar snaps cleanly.
“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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