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Drink

Lemonade Variations

A refreshing drink made with water, mint, lemons, sugar, and optional egg or bran.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,998 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lemonade Variations

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mint infusion

  1. Steep mint leaves in 1 cup of water for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the mint infusion.

  3. Add juice of 2 lemons.

  4. Add 3 glasses of water.

  5. Sweeten with sugar to taste.

Make the egg mixture

  1. Beat the yolk of 1 egg with juice of ½ lemon in a tall glass.

  2. Add a pinch of salt. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar. Mix well.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg white.

  4. Fill the glass with chilled carbonated water.

Make the bran drink

  1. Soak ½ cup of bran in 2 cups of water overnight.

  2. In the morning, strain the bran mixture.

  3. Add juice of 1 lemon.

  4. Sweeten to taste.

  5. Chill.

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.

  1. Mint + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mint + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Mint leaves
Steeping in water releases their aroma and fresh flavour into the drink.
Lemons
Their juice adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and softens the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Egg
Beaten egg white can foam and add a light, smooth body to the drink.
Bran
Soaking softens the bran and gives the drink body and a slightly gritty texture.
Carbonated water
Dissolved carbon dioxide adds fizz and a sharp, bubbly bite.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg white. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the beaten white, which gives a light, foamy body. Stirring hard knocks the air out and the foam collapses.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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