Name: Lemon-water, a Delightful Drink
Ingredients: 2 slices of lemon, thinly pared; a small piece of lemon peel; 2 teaspoons of sugar (or 1 tablespoon of capillaire); 1 pint of boiling water

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-water, a Delightful Drink

Ingredients

2 slices of lemon, thinly pared
a small piece of lemon peel
2 teaspoons of sugar (or 1 tablespoon of capillaire)
1 pint of boiling water

Directions

Place the lemon slices, lemon peel, and sugar in a teapot.
Pour in the boiling water and cover the teapot.
Let it steep for 2 hours before serving.

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.

Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Lemon slices: Supply the sour, fresh citrus flavour and aroma as they infuse into the water.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the lemon's sourness.
Lemon peel: Releases aromatic oils that give the drink its lemony fragrance.

“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.