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 ↓
Tisane Ma Louisa
Ingredients
Directions
Make the tea
Heat the water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
Add the verbena leaves to the boiling water.
Let the verbena leaves steep in water for about 10 minutes.
Stir the leaves in the water (attempt to crush them as small as possible), then strain out the leaves.
Finish and serve
Add the lemon juice and sugar.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
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
- Dried verbena leaves
- Provide the main lemon-herb aroma and flavour as they steep in the hot water.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the infusion.
The step that matters
Steeping the verbena leaves. Steeping in water that is already boiling, for the stated time, extracts the aromatic oils and flavour from the leaves. Too little time gives a weak tea, and crushing the leaves releases more bitterness along with flavour.
“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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