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 lemons in a bowl of hot water to extract more acid.
Measure the juice to ensure you have 1 pint, then strain the lemon and water mixture through a wire sieve.
Make the syrup
Weigh out 1¼ pounds of sugar and mix it with the grated lemon peel in a porcelain kettle.
Add the water to the sugar mixture and boil for 5 minutes.
Add the lemon juice, remove from heat, and strain through a linen cloth.
Bottle the syrup, cork tightly, and seal once cooled.
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
- Dissolves into the liquid to provide sweetness and body to the syrup.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the acidity and bright lemon flavour that defines the syrup.
- Grated lemon rind
- Adds aromatic lemon oils that flavour the syrup.
The step that matters
Add the lemon juice, remove from heat, and strain through a linen cloth.. Lemon juice is added after boiling so its fresh acidity and aroma are not cooked off. Removing from heat promptly keeps the flavour bright and stops the sugar from over-concentrating.
“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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