Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓
Persian Sherbet, As Sold in the Shops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the powder
Mix bicarbonate of soda, tartaric acid, and powdered sugar in a bowl.
Flavor the mixture with essence of lemon and slight perfume.
Store the powder in a tightly sealed bottle.
Serve
To use, mix 1 teaspoon of the powder in ½ tumbler of water.
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.
-
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
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Reacts with tartaric acid in water to release carbon dioxide, making the drink fizz.
- Tartaric acid
- Provides the sharp, sour taste and reacts with bicarbonate to produce fizz.
- Powdered loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sourness of the tartaric acid.
The step that matters
Store the powder in a tightly sealed bottle. Bicarbonate and tartaric acid react readily with moisture in the air. If the powder is exposed, it can start reacting early and lose its fizz before use.
“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.
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 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.