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Drink

Lemonade

A citrus drink made by infusing lemon pieces and cloves in hot water, then mixing with lemon juice, sugar, orange‑flower water, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Lemonade

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 ↓

Lemonade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the infusion

  1. Peel the lemons, removing all pith, and cut them into small pieces.

  2. Combine the lemon pieces and cloves in a bottle with hot water.

  3. Place the bottle in a bain‑marie or stewpan with boiling water for 1‑2 hours without boiling.

  4. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Make the lemonade

  1. Mix lemon juice, capillaire (or sugar), and orange‑flower water in a bowl.

  2. Add the cooled lemon infusion and stir well.

  3. Finally, add cold water and mix thoroughly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Clove + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 aromatic peel and juice that give the drink its main flavour and acidity.
Lemon juice
Adds sharp acidity and fresh citrus flavour to the drink.
Capillaire or sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sourness of the lemon.

The step that matters

Heating the infusion without boiling. Keeping the bottle below boiling in the bain‑marie extracts flavour gently from the lemon pieces; boiling can draw out bitter compounds from the pith and peel and make the infusion harsh.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, orange. 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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