Name: Russian Tea
Ingredients: Juice from 18 lemons; 1½ lbs sugar; ½ lb 'Golden Pekoe' tea or other strong tea; 3 cups water (for syrup); 1 quart cold water (for tea); Ice water (to make 7 quarts)

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Russian Tea

7 quarts

Ingredients

Juice from 18 lemons
1½ lbs sugar
½ lb 'Golden Pekoe' tea or other strong tea
3 cups water (for syrup)
1 quart cold water (for tea)
Ice water (to make 7 quarts)

Directions

Make the syrup

Boil sugar in 3 cups of water for 20 minutes and set aside to cool.
Once cool, add the strained lemon juice.

Brew the tea

Put the tea into a cheesecloth bag and bring to a boil in 1 quart of cold water.
Simmer for 5 minutes, then cool and add to the lemon syrup.

Combine and dilute

Add ice water to make a total of 7 quarts.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + teatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together610 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Tea + syruptop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together129 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Sugar: Dissolves into the water to form a syrup that sweetens the drink and balances the lemon's sourness.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity and bright flavour that offsets the sweetness of the syrup.
Tea: Provides the tannins and aroma that give the drink its characteristic flavour and body.