Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓
Hot Lemonade
Ingredients
Directions
Place a thin slice of lemon in a glass.
Add the juice of half a small lemon and remove all seeds.
Mix in 2 teaspoons of white sugar.
Fill the glass with boiling water, then stir well.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sour, bright acidity and citrus aroma of the drink.
- Boiling water
- Acts as the liquid base and dissolves the sugar while carrying the lemon flavour.
The step that matters
Stir well after adding the boiling water. Sugar dissolves much faster in hot water when it is agitated. Stirring spreads the sugar and lemon flavour evenly, so the first sip is not too sour or too sweet.
“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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