Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Lemonade
Ingredients
Directions
Pour boiling water over the lemon rind in a bowl.
Cover and let it cool.
Add the lemon juice and sugar.
Strain through muslin.
For extra flavor, boil a little cinnamon or ginger in the water before cooling.
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 + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 rind
- Lends fragrant oils from the peel to the water, giving the lemonade its aroma.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sour, acidic bite that defines the lemonade's flavor.
- White sugar
- Balances the lemon's sourness with sweetness.
The step that matters
Pouring boiling water over the lemon rind. Hot water draws aromatic oils out of the peel quickly. Covering the bowl while it cools keeps those volatile aromas from escaping, so the flavor stays in the liquid.
“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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