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 ↓
Invalid's Lemonade
Ingredients
Directions
Steep
Place the sliced lemon and sugar in a jug.
Pour boiling water over the ingredients and cover closely.
Let it steep for 2 hours.
Strain and serve
Strain the mixture and add 1 pint of cold water before serving.
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
- Lemon
- Provides the sour citrus flavour and acidity that give the drink its character.
- Lump sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the lemon's sharp acidity.
- Boiling water
- Dissolves the sugar and draws flavour out of the lemon during steeping.
The step that matters
Cover closely while steeping. Covering the jug keeps the hot water from releasing aromatic compounds into the air, so more of the lemon's fragrance stays in the drink as it steeps.
“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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