Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Barley Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Pour syrup into a butter saucepan and boil until it reaches caramel stage.
Remove any scum that forms on the surface.
Grease a marble stone with butter or oil to prevent sticking.
Pour the syrup onto the marble in long sticks of desired thickness.
Twist the ends while hot and let it cool until hard.
For flavor, add rasped lemon rind to the syrup before boiling.
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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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,235 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Syrup + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,796 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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