Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Lemon Drops
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Beat the softened butter until creamy.
Add the ground sugar and beat until the mixture is white.
Add the first egg and beat a little.
Add the second egg.
Continue beating until all four eggs are incorporated.
Sift the all-purpose flour and rice flour together.
Add a little of the sifted flour to the egg mixture and continue beating.
Add the remaining flour after incorporating three eggs.
Mix in the lemon zest and juice.
Shape and bake
Drop the mixture through a piping bag onto greased paper on a baking sheet.
Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for about eight minutes.
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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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the drops a tender, rich crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add moisture and structure as they are beaten in.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure once mixed into the batter.
- Ground loaf sugar
- Sweetens the drops and helps the butter hold air when creamed.
- Rice flour
- Adds a finer, more delicate texture than all-purpose flour alone.
The step that matters
Adding the flour after the eggs. Beating in flour too early or too vigorously can toughen the batter. Adding the flour in portions after the eggs are incorporated keeps the texture light and tender.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, rice):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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