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 Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Mix sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl.
Add the juice of 1 lemon and a pinch of salt.
Pour in 1½ cups of boiling water.
Cook in a double boiler until the mixture is clear.
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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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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the liquid into a glossy sauce as it heats and its starch swells.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright citrus flavor to the sauce.
The step that matters
Cook until the mixture is clear. Cornstarch needs to reach a simmer and be cooked through to fully thicken and lose its raw starchy taste. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and floury.
“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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