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 ↓
Alkaline Drink
Ingredients
Directions
Slice the lemon peel very thin.
Put the lemon peel into a pitcher with the sugar.
Pour enough hot water over it to dissolve the sugar.
Add the other water and stir well.
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
- Lemon peel
- Provides aroma and a sharp citrus flavor from its oils.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the drink and balances the lemon's tartness.
- Pure water
- Dissolves the sugar and dilutes the drink to a drinkable strength.
The step that matters
Dissolving the sugar in hot water. Hot water dissolves sugar much faster than cold. If the sugar is not fully dissolved before the rest of the water goes in, the drink will taste unevenly sweet and gritty at the bottom.
“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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