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 ↓
Lemonade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lemons
Clean the lemons with a cloth and peel them thinly, avoiding the white pith.
Remove all the pith from the lemons.
Slice the lemons thinly, remove the seeds, and place the slices and half the rind in a jug.
Make the lemonade
Boil 6 cups of water in a kettle.
Add about ¼ cup of loaf sugar to the jug, adjusting to taste.
Pour the boiling water over the lemons in the jug.
Cover the jug and let it sit to cool.
Once cold, strain the lemonade into another jug and serve.
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.
-
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 sharp acidity and aroma that define lemonade, with the rind adding fragrant oils.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the lemons' acidity, adjustable to taste.
The step that matters
Avoiding the white pith when peeling. The white pith under the peel is bitter. Peeling thinly and removing all pith keeps the bitterness out, while the yellow rind supplies aroma and oils to the drink.
“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.
More lemonade recipes
You might also like
Lemon Whey33 recipes
Lemon Wine31 recipes
Lemon Squash10 recipes
Lemon Essence8 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.