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Dessert

Lemon Drops

A candied lemon drop confection made by boiling lemon juice with powdered sugar and dropping onto paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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

  1. Squeeze and strain the juice of the lemons.

  2. Mix the lemon juice with powdered sugar until thick.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a preserving pan.

Cook and shape

  1. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon and boil for 5-6 minutes.

  2. Drop the mixture from a knife onto writing paper in drops the size of a shilling.

  3. Allow to cool; they will come off easily when cold.

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).

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 of the sugar.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the drops and, as it dissolves and cooks, sets into a firm, glossy candy.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while boiling. Sugar and lemon juice can scorch on the bottom of the pan if not stirred, giving a bitter, browned flavour. Constant stirring keeps the heat even so the mixture reaches a clean set once cooled.

“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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