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 ↓
Powders, Lemonade, Effervescing
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the powders
Mix the powdered white sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and essence of lemon thoroughly.
Divide the mixture into six dozen papers.
Divide the tartaric or citric acid into the same number of white papers.
Make the drink
To prepare a drink, dissolve the contents of the blue paper (alkaline powder) in ⅓ pint of water.
Add the contents of the white paper (acid powder) to the dissolved mixture.
Drink the mixture while it is effervescing.
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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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
- Powdered white sugar
- Provides sweetness and dissolves to give the drink its body.
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Alkaline powder that reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, producing the fizz.
- Tartaric or citric acid
- Supplies sourness and reacts with the bicarbonate to create the effervescence.
- Essence of lemon
- Adds lemon aroma and flavour.
The step that matters
Add the acid powder only after the alkaline powder has dissolved, then drink promptly. The acid and bicarbonate react to release carbon dioxide, which is the fizz. Mixing them too early or waiting too long lets the gas escape, so the drink goes flat.
“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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