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Artificial Lemon Juice

A vinegar‑based mixture that substitutes for lemon juice in sauces and soups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Artificial Lemon Juice

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the Crystal Vinegar, pounded Lump Sugar, and Quint-Essence of Lemon Peel in a bowl.

  2. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is well combined.

  3. Use as a substitute for lemon juice in fish sauces, soups, and other culinary purposes.

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.

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.

  1. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Crystal vinegar
Supplies the sharp acidity that stands in for the sourness of lemon juice.
Lump sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar, adding a little sweetness and balance.
Quint-essence of lemon peel
Adds the bright, citrusy aroma that lemon juice would otherwise provide.

The step that matters

Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved. Undissolved sugar grains settle to the bottom and make the mixture unevenly sweet and sour. Stirring until clear distributes the sugar, acid and lemon oil evenly through the liquid.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar. 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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