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 and dip the pan in cold water to stop cooking.
Shape and finish
Pour the sugar onto a greased marble surface.
Cut the sugar into small pieces and roll them out quickly.
Dust with powdered sugar to prevent sticking.
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, hard candy base once cooked to the crack stage.
- Lemon juice
- Acidity helps keep the sugar from crystallising, so it stays smooth and clear.
- Powdered sugar
- Coats the outside of the pieces so they do not stick together.
The step that matters
Removing the pan from heat at the crack stage. Sugar keeps darkening and hardening from residual heat, so cooking past the crack stage can scorch or turn it bitter. Dipping the pan in cold water halts the cooking quickly.
“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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