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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare the lemons as thin as possible.
Put 8 lemon rinds into 3 quarts of hot water and cover for 3-4 hours.
Rub fine sugar on the lemons to attract essence.
Make the lemonade
Place the sugared lemons in a bowl.
Squeeze the juice of the lemons into the bowl with the sugar.
Add the infused water and 3 quarts of boiling hot milk to the bowl.
Mix well and strain through a jelly-bag until clear.
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.
-
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 sour acidity and the aromatic oils from the peel and juice.
- Fine sugar
- Adds sweetness and its rubbing helps draw essential oils out of the lemon peel.
- Hot water
- Acts as the solvent that carries flavour out of the lemon rinds during infusion.
The step that matters
Pare the lemons as thin as possible. The white pith under the peel is bitter, so removing only the thin outer zest keeps the infused water clean-tasting and prevents bitterness in the finished drink.
“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.
More lemonade recipes
You might also like
Lemon Whey33 recipes
Lemon Wine31 recipes
Lemon Squash10 recipes
Lemon Essence8 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.