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 ↓
Lemok Syrup
fills two claret bottlesIngredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar with water until clear, skimming off any impurities.
Add the lemon juice and boil for about 10 minutes.
Continue boiling for another 15 to 20 minutes.
Bottle
Strain the syrup and bottle it.
This quantity will fill two claret bottles.
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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and the body of the syrup as it dissolves and thickens on boiling.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma that balance the sweetness.
The step that matters
Continue boiling for 15 to 20 minutes. Extended boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar, so the syrup thickens as it cools. Boiling too long can darken the syrup and change its flavour, so watch the timing.
“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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