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 ↓
Sherbet Powder
Ingredients
Directions
Make the powder
Grate the yellow part of the lemon rind into the sugar until the flavor is extracted.
Crush the sugar to a fine powder.
Mix the powdered sugar with tartaric acid and bicarbonate of soda.
Sift the mixture through a fine sieve.
Store and serve
Store in a dry bottle and cork it tightly until needed.
To serve, stir 1 teaspoon of the powder into a tumbler of water for a refreshing drink.
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
- Tartaric acid
- Provides the sour acid that reacts with bicarbonate of soda to fizz when dissolved in water.
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Reacts with the acid in water to release carbon dioxide, creating the fizzy effervescence.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the sourness of the acid and carries the lemon flavor.
The step that matters
Keep the powder dry and tightly sealed. Tartaric acid and bicarbonate of soda react as soon as moisture is present, so any damp exposure lets the powder start fizzing early and lose its effervescence before it is used.
“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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