Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Barley Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sugar
Clarify 3 pounds of sugar until it reaches the crack stage.
Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and 4 drops of essence of lemons; let it boil once or twice.
Set aside for a few minutes.
Shape and store
Grease a marble slab or large slate with almond oil.
Pour the sugar onto the slab and cut it into long strips with scissors, twisting them slightly.
Once cold, store in tin boxes or canisters.
For drops, use a ladle with a fine lip to drop the mixture onto the greased marble or a sheet of white paper with sifted sugar.
Ensure the drops are no larger than a shilling.
Flavour variations
For ginger barley sugar, substitute lemon essence with strong essence of ginger.
To make acidulated barley sugar, add 2 drachms of citric acid or more to taste.
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 + gingertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + gingertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,163 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 structure as it cooks to the crack stage.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps keep the sugar from crystallising.
The step that matters
Clarifying the sugar to the crack stage. Sugar must reach the hard-crack stage so that, once cooled, it sets glassy and brittle rather than sticky. Undercooked sugar stays soft and tacky, while overcooked sugar turns bitter and brown.
Swap the ginger
The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, almond):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Corianderfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, almond. 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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