Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
American Lemonade
Ingredients
Directions
In a large tumbler, combine the juice of one lemon, icing sugar, and water.
Fill the tumbler three parts full with shaved or crushed ice and shake well.
Top off with soda water and add a dash of raspberry or strawberry syrup.
Garnish with a slice of lemon and a slice of orange.
Serve with a straw.
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 + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + raspberrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,109 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Raspberry + orangetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together521 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the drink's flavour.
- Icing sugar
- Dissolves easily in cold liquid, sweetening the drink evenly.
- Soda water
- Adds carbonation, giving the drink lightness and fizz.
Swap the raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, orange):
- Limefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Blueberryfits about as well
- Raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, orange. 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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