Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓
Syrup of Lemons
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Clarify the sugar in a saucepan.
Once clarified, pour in the lemon juice and grated peel while boiling at low heat.
Boil the mixture together for 4 minutes.
Strain and store
Strain the syrup through fine muslin into a bottle.
Allow it to cool, then cork 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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon 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
- Lump sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, and thickens the syrup as it dissolves and concentrates.
- Lemon juice
- Adds sharp acidity and bright citrus flavour.
- Lemon peel
- Adds aromatic oils that give the syrup its fragrance and citrus character.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture together for 4 minutes. Once the juice and peel are in, the boil should be brief and gentle. Prolonged or harsh boiling can darken the sugar and dull the fresh lemon aroma, while the short boil keeps the flavour bright.
“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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