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 ↓
Lemon Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the flavour
Peel the lemons thinly.
Boil the lemon peels in water for 15 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and boil for another 15 minutes.
Strain the mixture through muslin.
Finish and bottle
Return the strained liquid to the pan, add the sugar and citric acid, and boil until completely dissolved.
Let it cool and then bottle for use.
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
- Lemons
- Provide the main lemon aroma and sourness from the peel and juice.
- Lump sugar
- Adds sweetness and body, making the syrup thick and rich.
- Citric acid
- Adds sharp tartness that brightens the lemon flavour.
The step that matters
Dissolve the sugar completely. Sugar dissolves fully only in hot liquid. Undissolved crystals would leave the syrup grainy and uneven in sweetness, so boil until no crystals remain before cooling.
“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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