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 ↓
Lemon Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, citric acid, lemon juice, and grated rind.
Pour the boiling water over the mixture.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Strain and bottle
Strain the mixture and bottle it.
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
- White sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, and its dissolved bulk gives the syrup its thick texture.
- Powdered citric acid
- Adds sharp sourness that balances the sweetness and keeps the syrup tasting bright.
- Lemon juice and grated rind
- Adds fresh lemon aroma from the rind and extra tartness from the juice.
The step that matters
Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved. Hot water dissolves sugar quickly, but undissolved crystals left in the syrup will make it grainy and uneven, and they can settle in the bottle.
“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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