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 ↓
Lemon Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the lemons and boil them in plenty of water for 2 to 3 hours until the rind can be pricked with a pin.
Wipe the lemons dry and cut them into very thin slices, discarding the seeds.
For each pound of fruit, use 1 pound of sugar and 1 pint of the water used for boiling.
Cook and jar
Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 1 hour, then transfer to jars for storage.
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 + 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
- Lemons
- Provide the sour flavour and aromatic oil, with thin-sliced rind giving the marmalade its texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, once boiled down, helps the marmalade thicken into a spreadable set.
The step that matters
Keep the mixture at a full boil for the full hour. Sugar and pectin from the rind only set properly when the mixture is concentrated by a steady rolling boil. Cooking too gently leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dark.
“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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