Why it works: Lemon and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Egg Lemonade I
Ingredients
Directions
Add lemon juice to the egg white.
As soon as the egg is dissolved, add the remaining ingredients.
Strain and serve.
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 + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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 juice
- Provides the sour acidity that defines the drink and begins to change the egg white.
- Egg
- The white adds body and a slightly silky, lightly foamy texture to the drink.
- Grain saccharine
- Provides sweetness to balance the sourness of the lemon juice.
The step that matters
As soon as the egg is dissolved, add the remaining ingredients.. Lemon juice acid starts changing egg white proteins on contact, so the egg can thicken or clump if left too long. Adding the remaining liquid promptly dilutes the mixture and keeps it smooth.
“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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