Name: Lemon Wine
Ingredients: 1 gallon water; 3 pounds powdered sugar; rinds of 4 lemons, pared very thin; ½ pound powdered sugar (for syrup); 1 slice of toasted bread; 1 tablespoon new yeast

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 ↓

Lemon Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wine

Boil water and 3 pounds of sugar for 15 minutes, skimming well.
Pour the mixture over the lemon rinds.
Make a thick syrup with ½ pound of sugar and lemon juice.
Spread new yeast on the toasted bread.
Add the bread to the lukewarm mixture.
Let it work for 2 days.

Age and bottle

Transfer to a cask.
Let it stand for 3 months.
Bottle it.

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).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,445 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + breadtop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,638 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

Powdered sugar: Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol, and sweetness in the finished wine.
New yeast: Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the wine's fermentation.
Lemon rinds: Supply aromatic oils that give the wine its lemon flavour and aroma.