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Dessert

Lemon Drops

A candied lemon drop confection made with sugar, lemon juice, zest, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Lemon Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Beat the egg whites to a froth.

  2. Mix the lemon or lime juice with the sugar-candy.

  3. Gradually add the zest while mixing.

  4. Boil the mixture until it reaches a candy height.

Shape and bake

  1. Cover open tins with paper and sift sugar over them.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the prepared tins and place them in the oven.

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Fine sugar-candy
Provides the sweetness and, once boiled, the set that holds the drops together.
Egg whites
Whipped to a froth, they add lightness and help the drops hold their shape.
Lemon or lime juice
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Lemon or lime zest
Adds concentrated citrus aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling to candy height. Sugar syrup sets as its concentration rises. Boiling too little leaves the drops sticky and soft, while boiling too long makes them hard and brittle. Stopping at the right point gives the chewy-crisp texture.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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