Name: Lemon Wine
Ingredients: 14 lemons; 2 pounds lump sugar (for syrup); 40 pounds lump sugar (for boiling); 10 gallons water; brandy (amount not specified); whites of 6 eggs

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lemon Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup and base

Boil the juice of the lemons with 2 pounds of lump sugar to make a syrup.
Boil 10 gallons of water with 40 pounds of lump sugar for 30 minutes.
Let the mixture cool.

Flavour and cask

Add brandy, lemon peel, and the syrup to the cooled mixture.
Transfer the mixture to a cask and seal it tightly.
Let the cask stand for 6 months.

Add the egg whites

Beat the whites of 6 eggs to a froth.
Mix the froth with cold water.
Add the egg-white mixture to the cask.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,340 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Lemon and sugar 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

Lemons: Juice and peel supply the sharp acidity and bright lemon aroma.
Lump sugar: Dissolves into the water to provide sweetness and body.
Brandy: Adds alcohol that helps preserve the wine and carries aroma.
Egg whites: Whipped whites collect suspended particles as they settle, helping clear the liquid.