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 ↓
Linseed Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the linseed in a small strainer under cold water.
Thinly peel the yellow rind from the lemon.
Simmer and finish
In a pot, combine the linseed, lemon rind, and cold water; simmer for 2 hours.
Strain the mixture to remove the seeds.
For each pint of tea, add 2 teaspoons of sugar and the juice of 1 lemon.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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
- Linseed
- Releases mucilage when simmered, giving the tea a soft, slightly thick body.
- Lemon
- Its rind adds aroma and its juice adds sharp acidity that brightens the tea.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the tart lemon juice.
The step that matters
Simmering the linseed for 2 hours. A gentle simmer slowly draws the mucilage out of the seeds into the water. Boiling hard can cloud the tea and break the seeds, while stopping early leaves the drink thin.
“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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