Name: Apollinaris Lemonade
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon powdered sugar; 3 lumps cracked ice; Juice of 1 lemon; 1 pint Apollinaris water

Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓

Apollinaris Lemonade

Ingredients

1 tablespoon powdered sugar
3 lumps cracked ice
Juice of 1 lemon
1 pint Apollinaris water

Directions

In a large glass, combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice.
Add the cracked ice.
Pour in the Apollinaris water.
Stir gently and serve with straws.

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.

Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Powdered sugar: Dissolves quickly in the lemon juice to sweeten the drink evenly.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the flavour.
Apollinaris water: Provides the sparkling carbonation that gives the drink its fizz.

“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.