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 juice
Juice the lemons and grate the rind of three lemons into the juice.
Let the mixture stand overnight.
Make the syrup
Make a thick syrup by dissolving the sugar in water.
Allow the syrup to cool.
Combine and bottle
Strain the lemon juice into the cooled syrup.
Squeeze in oil from the grated rind to taste.
Bottle the syrup and cork tightly for future use.
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 sugar
- Provides sweetness and the thick body of the syrup.
- Juice of lemons
- Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and gives the syrup its lemon flavour.
- Grated lemon rind
- Its oils carry the fragrant lemon aroma into the syrup.
The step that matters
Allow the syrup to cool before adding the juice. Heat drives off the volatile aroma compounds in fresh lemon, so adding the juice to hot syrup dulls its bright flavour. Cooling first keeps the lemon taste fresh.
“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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