Name: Fruit Lemonade
Ingredients: Juice of 6 lemons; Juice of 2 oranges; A little shredded pineapple; Sugar to taste; 6 glasses (1.5 liters) of water; Fresh strawberries or cherries (optional, or use maraschino cherries)

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fruit Lemonade

6 glasses (1.5 liters) of water

Ingredients

Juice of 6 lemons
Juice of 2 oranges
A little shredded pineapple
Sugar to taste
6 glasses (1.5 liters) of water
Fresh strawberries or cherries (optional, or use maraschino cherries)

Directions

Juice the lemons and oranges into a large pitcher.
Add the shredded pineapple and sugar to taste.
Pour in the water and stir well.
If using, add fresh strawberries or cherries, or maraschino cherries.
Serve chilled.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 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 main acidity and bright citrus flavor that defines the lemonade.
Oranges: Add sweetness and aromatic citrus flavor that rounds out the lemon's sharpness.
Sugar: Sweetens the drink and balances the acidity of the citrus juice.
Shredded pineapple: Adds tropical fruit flavor and a little extra sweetness and body.