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Lemon Syrup

A sweet syrup made from lemon juice, grated rind, orange rind, and white sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Grate the rind of 3 lemons and 3 oranges.

  2. Let it stand overnight.

Make the syrup

  1. Make a thick syrup with 6 pounds of white sugar.

  2. Let it cool.

Combine and bottle

  1. Strain the lemon juice into the cooled syrup.

  2. Squeeze in oil from the grated rind to taste.

  3. Store in securely corked bottles.

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.

  1. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 juice
Adds sharp acidity and bright lemon flavour that balances the sugar.
White sugar
Provides sweetness and the thick body of the syrup.
Lemon rind
Its oils carry the strong lemon aroma into the syrup.
Orange rind
Its oils add a fragrant citrus aroma alongside the lemon.

The step that matters

Strain the lemon juice into the cooled syrup. Heat dulls the volatile aromas and fresh flavour of citrus juice, so adding it to syrup that has cooled keeps the lemon taste bright.

“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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