Why it works: Syrup and sugar 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 Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the lemon infusion
In a closed vessel, combine the grated rinds of 6 lemons with 1 pint of boiling water.
Let the mixture sit for a few hours, then strain it.
Press the juice from the grated lemons and add it to the strained mixture.
Make the syrup
For each pint of this mixture, add 1 pint of water and 3.5 pounds of sugar.
Place the mixture on the fire and stir until the sugar dissolves; do not let it boil.
Remove from heat and strain into a jug.
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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Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,235 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Grated lemon rinds
- Supply the aromatic oils that give the syrup its lemon flavour.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, making the syrup thick and preserving it.
- Citric acid
- Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness and brightens the lemon flavour.
The step that matters
Dissolving the sugar without boiling. Heating gently while stirring dissolves the sugar fully without boiling. Boiling can drive off the volatile lemon aromas and darken or alter the flavour of the syrup.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Pearfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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