Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Bring the water to a boil.
Mix the cornstarch with the sugar, add to the boiling water, and stir until smooth.
Let boil gently for a few moments.
Add the butter, lemon juice and rind, and a few grains of salt. Mix well 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.
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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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the water into a smooth, glossy sauce as it boils.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon
- Provides the acidity and aroma of the sauce through juice and rind.
- Vegetable butter
- Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and a smoother finish.
The step that matters
Stir the cornstarch into the boiling water until smooth. Cornstarch clumps if it hits hot liquid undispersed. Mixing it first with the sugar separates the granules, and stirring while it boils lets the starch swell evenly and thicken the sauce without lumps.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar. 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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