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 ↓
Summer Drink
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Make a syrup by boiling 4 pounds of white sugar with 4 quarts of water.
Let the syrup cool, then add 4 ounces of tartaric acid and 1.5 ounces of essence of lemon.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the mixture.
Bottle the syrup.
Serve
To serve, mix 1 wineglass of the syrup with 1 tumbler of water and add enough carbonate of soda to make it effervesce.
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).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- White sugar
- Dissolves into the water to form the sweet base of the syrup.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and gives the lemonade its tang.
- Egg whites
- Whipped foam adds body and a light, airy texture to the syrup.
- Carbonate of soda
- Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, producing the fizz when served.
The step that matters
Adding the carbonate of soda at serving. Carbonate of soda must be added only at serving, because it reacts with the tartaric acid to release carbon dioxide. If it is added early, the gas escapes before the drink is served and the lemonade goes flat.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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