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 Syeup
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the yellow rind from the lemons and slice them.
In a deep plate, layer the lemon slices and a thick layer of sugar.
Cover the plate tightly with a saucer and place it in a warm location.
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
- Supply the sour acidity and citrus juice that the syrup is built from.
- Sugar
- Draws juice out of the lemon slices by osmosis and dissolves into a syrup, adding sweetness.
The step that matters
Layering the sugar thickly over the lemon slices. Sugar pulls water and juice out of the lemon by osmosis and dissolves into it. A thick, even layer covers every slice so the juice is drawn out evenly and the syrup forms without drying patches.
“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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