Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Boil sugar and water together for 5 minutes.
Dissolve cornstarch in cold water and add to the mixture; stir until thickened.
Cook for 5 more minutes.
Remove from heat, add lemon juice and butter, and stir until blended.
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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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body when dissolved in cold water first.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and helps form a syrup with the water.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, glossy finish when stirred in off the heat.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright flavour to balance the sweetness.
The step that matters
Adding the cornstarch slurry. Cornstarch must be dissolved in cold water before it goes into the hot mixture, otherwise it clumps. Stirring while it heats lets the starch granules swell and thicken the sauce evenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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