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 ↓
Arrow-root Water
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the peel of half a lemon in 4 cups of water.
Mix 1 tablespoon of arrow-root with a little cold water and pour it off.
Stir the arrow-root mixture into the boiling lemon water.
Sweeten with 2 teaspoons of loaf sugar and stir over the heat until it boils.
Before drinking, squeeze in a little lemon juice.
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
- Arrow-root
- Thickens the water slightly as its starch swells with heat, giving a light body.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the drink, balancing the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and fresh lemon flavour, added to taste just before drinking.
The step that matters
Stirring the arrow-root into boiling water. Arrow-root starch must be fully dispersed in cold water first, then added to boiling liquid while stirring, so it thickens evenly. Adding it dry or to cool liquid can cause lumps that do not dissolve.
“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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