Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve 1 ounce of citric acid in 2 quarts of water.
Add loaf sugar to taste.
Rub fresh lemon or Seville orange on the sugar until the essential oil is absorbed.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Citric acid
- Provides the sour, tart flavour that gives lemonade its character.
- Loaf sugar
- Balances the acidity with sweetness.
- Fresh lemon or seville orange
- Supplies aromatic essential oil, rubbed into the sugar to flavour the drink.
The step that matters
Rubbing the citrus into the sugar. Rubbing the fruit over the sugar lifts the essential oil from the peel into the sugar crystals, which then dissolve and carry the aroma through the drink. Stopping early leaves the flavour weak, so rub until the oil is absorbed.
“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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