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 ↓
To Boil Sugar From Strup to Candt, or to Caramel
Ingredients
Directions
Combine sugar and water in a pan and boil until it forms a thin syrup, about 5-10 minutes.
Continue boiling until it reaches a thick syrup that can form a long thread when tested.
Add lemon juice if making caramel or barley-sugar to prevent graining.
Stir constantly until the mixture rises to the top of the pan.
Quickly ladle the mixture into paper cases or dishes before it hardens.
To test, drop a small amount into cold water; it should snap cleanly between your teeth.
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
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