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 Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine the sugar and water in a large pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil and let it boil for 20 minutes.
While boiling, add the lemon juice and the grated peel in a muslin bag.
Boil for an additional 5 minutes, then remove from heat.
Bottle and store
Let the syrup cool, then bottle it and cork it tightly 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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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
- White sugar
- Provides sweetness and the thick body of the syrup as it dissolves in the water.
- Lemon juice
- Adds bright acidity and the main lemon flavour to the syrup.
- Lemon peel
- Contributes aromatic oils that add fragrance and deeper lemon flavour to the syrup.
The step that matters
Boiling with the lemon juice and peel. Boiling the sugar syrup for 20 minutes concentrates it, and the added juice and peel are then heated only briefly. Keeping the peel in a muslin bag stops bitter pith and small bits from clouding the syrup while its oils still flavour it.
“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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