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 ↓
Lemon Drops
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the paste
Place the sugar in a plate.
Squeeze the lemons over the sugar and mix until it forms a thick paste.
Optionally, add grated lemon peel for extra flavor.
Dry and finish
Place drops the size of a coin onto a sheet of paper.
Place the paper in a 300°F (150°C) oven until the drops are completely dry.
Remove the drops from the paper once dry.
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
- Sugar
- Forms the body of the drops and sets into a firm, crisp candy as it dries.
- Lemons
- Provide the juice that moistens the sugar into a paste and supplies the sharp lemon flavor.
The step that matters
Drying the drops until completely dry. Sugar hardens as its moisture evaporates. If the drops are removed before they are fully dry, they stay tacky or soft instead of setting into crisp candy.
“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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