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
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a saucepan, combine 2 cups of sugar and ½ cup of water. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.
Pour the hot syrup over the thin rind of the lemons and let it cool.
Combine and rest
Add the juice of 6 lemons to 2 quarts of water and mix with the cold syrup.
Cover and let stand for 2 hours before serving.
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.
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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
- Granulated sugar
- Provides sweetness and, dissolved in the syrup, balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon rind
- Infuses the syrup with aromatic oils from the peel, adding fragrance and lemon flavour.
- Lemon juice
- Supplies the sour acidity and bright citrus flavour that defines the drink.
The step that matters
Pour the hot syrup over the rind and let it cool. Hot syrup draws aromatic oils out of the lemon peel far more effectively than cold liquid. Letting it cool before mixing keeps the flavour concentrated and avoids diluting or cooking the fresh lemon juice.
“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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