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 ↓
Lemon Squash
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lemons
Thinly peel the outer rinds of the lemons into a bowl, discarding the inner white skin.
Slice the lemons crosswise as thinly as possible, removing the seeds.
Steep and serve
Combine the lemon slices, juice, rinds, and sugar in the bowl.
Pour in the boiling water, cover, and let it stand for a day or overnight.
Strain the mixture into a jug and serve.
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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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
- Lemons
- Provide the flavour, aroma and acidity of the squash, from both rind and juice.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the squash and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
The step that matters
Steeping overnight. Letting the lemons stand in boiling water for a day or overnight draws oils from the rinds and flavour from the slices into the liquid. Stopping early leaves the squash weak and thin in flavour.
“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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