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 ↓
Caramel Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the sugar and water together quickly over a clear fire, skimming carefully as soon as it boils.
Keep boiling until the sugar is brittle when dropped into cold water.
Squeeze in a little lemon juice and let it cook for an instant longer.
Set the pan into another pan of cold water; the caramel is ready for use.
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.
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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
- Loaf sugar
- Forms the caramel itself, browning and hardening as it cooks to a brittle state.
- Spring water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can boil evenly before caramelising.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that helps keep the cooked sugar from turning grainy.
The step that matters
Keep boiling until the sugar is brittle when dropped into cold water. Sugar syrup hardens as its temperature rises and water boils off. Stopping too early leaves a soft, sticky caramel, while going too far scorches it and gives a bitter flavour.
“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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