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Iceland Moss Lemonade

A refreshing drink made from Iceland moss, lemon, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Iceland Moss Lemonade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the Iceland moss in two waters.

  2. Peel and slice the lemons, discarding the peel.

  3. Mash the sliced lemons with 4 tablespoons of sugar.

  4. Mix the mashed lemons with the moss in a pitcher.

Steep and serve

  1. Pour the boiling water over the mixture and let it stand until cold.

  2. Sweeten to taste and serve ice-cold.

  3. If too thick, add cold water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Iceland moss
Its gel-forming compounds thicken the liquid to a light, silky body.
Lemons
Provide the acidity and bright flavour that define the lemonade.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and balances the lemons' sourness.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling water over the mixture and let it stand until cold. Moss thickens gradually as it cools and steeps, so the drink's texture develops during this step. Letting it cool fully lets the gel set properly. Adding water only after this lets you correct thickness.

“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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