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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lemons
Place the lemons in a preserving pan and cover them with cold water.
Boil gently for 2 hours.
Drain and replace the water with fresh boiling water at least 3 times.
Let the lemons cool slightly, then slice them thinly.
Remove all the seeds.
Weigh the prepared fruit.
Make the marmalade
For each pound, use 2 lbs of sugar and 1 pint of the last boiling water.
Boil the sugar and water together until a thin syrup forms.
Add the prepared fruit.
Boil until the marmalade jellies when tested on a cold plate.
Store
Cover with paper brushed with egg white.
Store in a cool, dry place.
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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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 fruit, peel and pectin-rich pith that give the marmalade its body and bitter flavour.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it set into a firm, spreadable gel.
The step that matters
Boil until the marmalade jellies. Boiling must continue until the mixture reaches the gel point. Too little boiling leaves it runny, while overboiling can make it dark and bitter. The cold plate test shows when it has set.
“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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