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Dessert

Lemon Candy

A sweet lemon candy made by boiling sugar, butter, lemon rind and juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lemon Candy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the sugar, grated rind, and juice of the lemon.

  3. Boil the mixture for about 10 minutes.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Castor sugar
Provides sweetness and, once boiled, the firm, brittle structure of the candy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the candy a smoother, less brittle bite.
Lemon
Supplies acidity and aroma from the juice and rind, brightening the sweetness.
Syrup
Interferes with sugar crystallisation, helping the candy stay smooth rather than grainy.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for about 10 minutes. Boiling concentrates the sugar so the candy sets firm when cooled. Too short a boil leaves it soft and sticky; too long can make it hard or bitter.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits about as well
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, 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.

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