Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓
Soda Lemonade
Ingredients
Directions
Combine lemon juice and sugar to taste in a pitcher.
Add soda water and stir gently with a spoon.
Do not shake the mixture.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Soda water
- Provides carbonation, giving the drink its fizz and lightness.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the lemon juice.
The step that matters
Add soda water and stir gently. Carbon dioxide escapes quickly from carbonated liquids when agitated, so stirring gently and not shaking keeps the drink fizzy.
“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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