Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Toast and Water
Ingredients
Directions
Cut crusts from the stale wholemeal loaf, twice as thick as usual.
Toast the crusts carefully until browned and hard, but not burnt.
Alternatively, cut the crusts into dice and roast slowly.
Pour boiling water into a heated jug and add the toast crusts or roasted dice.
Do not pour the water directly onto the toast.
Let it stand until cold, then strain to remove grit.
Serve hot or cold as desired, adding flavorings like lemon, orange juice, currant jelly, or grated apple if desired.
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 + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Orange + appletop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Currant + appletop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,918 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Orange + curranttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,034 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, currant, apple):
- Cranberryfits better
- Figfits better
- Plumfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against orange, currant, apple. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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