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 ↓
Lemonade Without Lemons
Ingredients
Directions
Make the concentrate
In a jug, combine the sugar, essence of lemon, and citric acid.
Pour the boiling water over the mixture and stir until dissolved.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Serve
When serving, dilute with cold water 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 + 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
- Citric acid
- Provides the sour, tart taste that stands in for lemon juice.
- Essence of lemon
- Supplies the lemon aroma and flavour without any real lemon juice.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the citric acid.
The step that matters
Stirring until fully dissolved. Hot water dissolves sugar and citric acid quickly, but any grains left undissolved make the lemonade gritty and uneven in sweetness and sourness. Stir until the mixture is clear 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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