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
Prepare
Slice the lemon peel very thin and place it in a pitcher.
Add the sugar and pour in enough hot water to dissolve the sugar.
Mix and serve
Stir in the pure water and Vichy water.
Serve chilled.
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
- Adds aroma and bright citrus flavour from the oils in its skin.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the lemon.
- Pure water
- Forms the liquid base that dilutes the flavoured syrup to a drinkable strength.
The step that matters
Dissolving the sugar in hot water. Hot water dissolves sugar quickly and fully. If the sugar is not fully dissolved before the cold waters go in, it can stay gritty and unevenly sweet.
“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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