Name: Lemon Syrup
Ingredients: juice of 12 lemons; grated rind of 6 lemons; 6 pounds white sugar; water

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

juice of 12 lemons
grated rind of 6 lemons
6 pounds white sugar
water

Directions

Prepare the lemons

Combine the juice of 12 lemons and the grated rind of 6 lemons in a bowl and let it sit overnight.

Make the syrup

In a pot, combine 6 pounds of white sugar with water to make a thick syrup.

Combine and finish

Once the syrup is cool, strain the lemon juice mixture into it.
Squeeze in oil from the grated rind to taste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Lemon juice: Provides the sharp acidity and tartness that defines the syrup.
Grated lemon rind: Supplies aromatic citrus oils that give the syrup its strong lemon fragrance.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and body to the syrup, and helps preserve it.

“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.