Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sauce
Cut the lemon slices into very small dice.
Combine the diced lemon with the drawn butter in a saucepan.
Heat the mixture until it just reaches boiling point.
Serve
Pour the sauce over boiled fowls.
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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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lemon
- Adds sharp acidity and fresh aroma that cut through the richness of the butter.
- Drawn butter
- Provides fat and a rich, smooth body to the sauce.
The step that matters
Heating until just boiling. Butter can separate or scorch if overheated, so heating only until it just reaches boiling point keeps the sauce smooth and prevents the lemon's flavour from turning harsh or bitter.
“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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