Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lemons
Juice the lemons.
Grate the zest from 6 lemons into the juice.
Let the mixture stand overnight.
Make the syrup
In a pot, combine the sugar with water to make a thick syrup.
Once the syrup is cool, strain the lemon juice into it.
Squeeze in the oil from the grated lemon zest to taste.
Bottle
Bottle the syrup and securely cork it for future 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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- White sugar
- Provides sweetness and the thick body of the syrup.
- Lemon juice
- Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and gives the syrup its bright flavor.
- Lemon zest
- Supplies aromatic oils from the peel that add fragrance and citrus flavor.
The step that matters
Strain the juice in only after the syrup is cool. Heat dulls the volatile aroma compounds in fresh citrus, so adding the juice to hot syrup can leave the flavor flatter and less fresh.
“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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