Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Barley-sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a large pot, combine the sugar and spring water.
Add enough egg white to clarify the mixture.
Heat until it begins to whiten and thicken.
Stir in the lemon juice and boil quickly until it reaches the desired consistency.
Shape and store
Pour the mixture onto a greased marble slab or shallow dish.
When it starts to harden at the edges, shape it into sticks, lozenges, or balls.
If it cools too quickly, place the vessel in a pan of water and gently reheat to liquefy.
Store cooled sugar in dry canisters in a dry place.
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.
-
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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
- Sugar
- Forms the glassy, brittle candy body and provides all the sweetness.
- Egg white
- Binds with impurities so they can be skimmed off, clarifying the syrup.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that helps prevent the sugar from recrystallizing into grainy crystals.
The step that matters
Boil quickly to the desired consistency. Sugar becomes brittle candy only when enough water has boiled off to reach a high concentration. Too little cooking leaves a sticky, soft result, while overcooking makes it bitter or dark. Stop at the target stage and avoid letting the mixture crystallize.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter. 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.
More barley sugar recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.