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 ↓
Lemon Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lemons
Wash and wipe the lemons.
Grate the yellow rind off half of the lemons, then peel off the white part and discard it.
Peel the other half of the lemons, cut them in half, and squeeze out all the juice using a lemon squeezer.
Remove the seeds and place the squeezed lemon halves in a bowl of hot water to extract more acid.
Measure the juice; you should have 1 pint.
Strain the lemon and water mixture through a wire sieve.
Make the syrup
For each pint of lemon juice, measure 1 pint of water and weigh 1¼ pounds of sugar.
In a porcelain kettle, mix the sugar and grated lemon peel, then add the water and boil for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat, add the lemon juice, and strain through a linen cloth.
Bottle
Bottle the syrup, seal tightly, and let it cool.
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
- White granulated sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, and helps preserve the syrup.
- Lemon juice
- Adds the sharp acidity and bright flavour that define the syrup.
- Lemons
- Supply the juice for acidity and the rind for aroma.
- Lemon rind
- Adds fragrant citrus oils that give the syrup its aroma.
The step that matters
Add the lemon juice off the heat. Removing the sugar and water from the heat before adding the juice keeps the fresh lemon flavour and aroma from being dulled or driven off by boiling.
“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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