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 the lemons
Rub the lemons until soft.
Cut them in half and squeeze out the juice, removing the seeds.
Make the lemonade
Add 4 tablespoons of sugar to the lemon juice.
Pour in 1 pint of cold or boiling water, depending on your preference for hot or cold lemonade.
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 + 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
- Supply the juice that gives the lemonade its sharp, sour flavour and bright aroma.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sourness of the lemon juice.
- Water
- Makes up most of the drink and carries the dissolved sugar and lemon flavour.
The step that matters
Adding the sugar to the lemon juice. Sugar dissolves more readily in warm or hot liquid than in cold, so using boiling water or stirring well helps keep the sugar from settling at the bottom of the 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.
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