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 Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Squeeze and strain the juice of the lemons.
Mix the lemon juice with enough sugar until thick.
Cook and shape
Put the mixture into a preserving pan and stir constantly with a wooden spoon.
Boil for 5 to 6 minutes.
Drop the mixture from the point of a knife onto writing paper in drops the size of a shilling.
Let them cool; they will come off easily.
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
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and flavours the drops.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the drops and, as it thickens and cooks, sets them into a firm candy.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture. Boiling for only 5 to 6 minutes while stirring constantly matters because the sugar must reach a concentration that sets firmly as it cools. Stirring prevents scorching on the base of the pan.
“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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