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 ↓
Flax Seed Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Boil 2 tablespoons of whole flax seed in 1 pint of boiling water for 15 minutes.
Cut up 1 lemon and place it in a pitcher with 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Strain the hot tea through a wire strainer into the pitcher and stir well.
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
- Flax seed
- Releases mucilage into the water, giving the tea its body and slightly silky texture.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness of the tea.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tea and softens the sharpness of the lemon.
The step that matters
Boil the flax seed for the full 15 minutes. Flax seed must simmer long enough for its mucilage to leach into the water. A shorter boil gives a thin tea with little body.
“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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