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Dessert

Lemon Sago

A dessert of sago cooked in lemon syrup, served hot or chilled with whipped cream or preserve.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,235 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lemon Sago

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Make a syrup by combining lemon juice, sugar, and water, flavored with the yellow rind of the lemon.

  2. Bring the syrup to a boil.

Cook the sago

  1. Stir in the dry sago and boil for 20 to 30 minutes until the sago looks clear.

  2. Pour the cooked sago into a wetted mold and chill before serving with whipped cream or preserve.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sago
Starch that thickens and sets into a soft, jelly-like body as it cooks and cools.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the flavor of the syrup.
Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the syrup and adds body to the liquid the sago cooks in.

The step that matters

Boiling the sago until it looks clear. Dry sago must cook long enough for its starch granules to swell and become translucent. Stopping early leaves a chalky white core and a grainy texture, so the cook should watch for clarity rather than only the clock.

“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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