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 ↓
Lemonade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grate the rind of 2 lemons and mix with the sugar.
If using granulated sugar, grate the lemons and steep the rind in water for 1-2 hours or simmer for 5 minutes.
Mix and serve
Combine the lemon juice and water with the sugar mixture.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved and serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the drink and balances the sourness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the tart, acidic flavour that defines the lemonade.
- Lemon rind
- Adds aromatic lemon oils from the zest to the flavour.
The step that matters
Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Sugar dissolves more readily in liquid that is already mixed with the sugar and stirred well. Undissolved crystals leave the drink gritty at the bottom and make the sweetness uneven from sip to sip.
“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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