Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓
London Sherbet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the powder
Dry and pound the tartaric acid, bicarbonate of soda, and caster sugar separately.
Mix the dried ingredients together.
Add the essence of lemon to the sugar and rub the mixture through a fine sieve in a dry place.
Store the mixture in bottles for later use.
Serve
To serve, mix 2 tablespoons of the mixture in a tumbler of cold water.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Tartaric acid
- Provides the sharp, sour taste and reacts with bicarbonate to produce fizz.
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Reacts with the acid in water to release carbon dioxide, creating the fizzing effect.
- Caster sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the sourness of the acid.
The step that matters
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve in a dry place. Moisture can trigger the acid and bicarbonate to react early, so the powder would lose its fizz before serving. Keeping everything dry and evenly mixed ensures a consistent, lively effervescence when dissolved in water.
“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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