Why it works: Lemon and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
Add the boiling water and stir well.
Dissolve the corn starch in a small amount of cold water, then add it to the mixture.
Cook over medium heat until the sauce thickens.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + corntop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice and zest
- Supplies acidity and bright aroma that define the sauce's flavour.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the sauce as its granules swell and gelatinise when heated.
The step that matters
Adding the corn starch slurry. Corn starch must be dissolved in cold water first, otherwise it clumps when added to hot liquid. Once in the mixture, it needs heat to thicken fully, so the sauce should cook until it visibly thickens.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, corn):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, corn. 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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