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Lemon Drops

A sweet treat made by dropping lemon zest and egg white mixture onto paper to dry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 the zest

  1. Wash and dry the lemons.

  2. Rub the lemons on sugar and scrape off the yellow zest onto a sheet of paper.

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites with a wooden spoon.

  2. Gradually add the lemon zest, sugar, and enough powdered sugar until the mixture is thick enough to drop without running.

  3. Add lemon juice to achieve desired acidity.

Dry and store

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto sheets of white paper, about the size of a sixpence.

  2. Dry the drops in a warm closet or near the fire.

  3. Once dry, store them in glasses or boxes in a dry place.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Egg whites
Whipped and mixed in, they give the drops a light, airy structure and help them hold their shape.
Lemon zest
Carries the lemon's aroma and oils into the mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, with the egg whites, helps give the mixture body.
Powdered sugar
Stiffens the mixture so it holds its shape when dropped rather than running.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavour, adjusted to taste.

The step that matters

Adding the powdered sugar until the mixture is thick enough to drop without running. Egg whites are mostly water and protein; too little sugar leaves the mixture loose and spreading, while enough sugar thickens it so the drops keep their shape while they dry.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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