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 ↓
Lemonade, Epeervescing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the powder
Mix tartaric acid, bicarbonate of soda, and powdered sugar together.
Store the mixture in a dry place.
Make the drink
To make a drink, use 1 teaspoon of the mixture with a little essence of lemon in ½ tumbler of water.
Alternatively, add 2 teaspoons of the mixture to a soda-water bottle and fill with water.
Cork the bottle immediately after filling.
Mix the essence of lemon with the water before pouring it onto the mixture.
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
- Tartaric acid
- Supplies the sharp acidity and reacts with bicarbonate of soda to produce fizz.
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Releases carbon dioxide gas when it meets the acid and water, creating effervescence.
- Powdered lump sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves quickly to balance the acid.
- Essence of lemon
- Adds the lemon aroma and flavour to the drink.
The step that matters
Cork the bottle immediately after filling. The acid and bicarbonate start releasing carbon dioxide as soon as they contact water. If the bottle stays open, the gas escapes and the drink loses its fizz.
“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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