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 dry the lemons.
Roll the lemons on a plate until the oil starts to release.
Rub the lemons with granulated sugar until all the oil is absorbed.
Make the syrup
Squeeze out the juice and strain it through a cloth to remove seeds and pulp.
Combine the lemon juice with 1 pound of sugar.
Boil gently for 15 to 20 minutes, straining if not clear.
Bottle and store
Reheat, bottle, seal tightly, and store in a cool place.
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
- Lemons
- Provide the juice and the aromatic oil from the peel that flavours the syrup.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and, with the lemon juice, helps preserve it for storage.
The step that matters
Boil gently for 15 to 20 minutes. Boiling too hard or too long can darken the syrup and dull its bright lemon flavour, while sugar dissolved in gentle heat thickens it evenly. Straining afterward keeps it clear.
“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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