Why it works: Cream and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,640 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Imperial Drink
Ingredients
Directions
Combine cream of tartar, lemon juice, and saccharine in a jar or jug.
Add boiling water last and cover the vessel tightly.
Let the mixture cool, then strain it into another container to leave sediment behind.
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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Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,640 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,640 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
- Cream of tartar
- Adds tartness and acidity, giving the drink its sharp, tangy flavor.
- Lemon juice
- Adds fresh sour citrus flavor and extra acidity.
- Saccharine
- Adds sweetness to balance the sourness.
The step that matters
Strain after cooling. Cream of tartar is only partly soluble in water and comes out of solution as it cools, forming a sediment. Straining only after the mixture has cooled removes this sediment, so the lemonade stays clear rather than gritty.
“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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