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 ↓
Raspberry Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Wash the raspberries if necessary and press them through a fine sieve.
In a separate bowl, mix the water and lemon juice.
Sweeten the mixture to taste.
Serve
Place spiceless wafers in a tureen and pour the raspberry soup over them.
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
- Raspberries
- Provide the main body and fruity flavour of the soup.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the raspberry flavour and balances sweetness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to offset the tartness of the raspberries and lemon.
The step that matters
Sweeten to taste. Raspberries and lemon vary in tartness, so sugar should be added after the lemon juice is mixed in and adjusted by tasting. Sweetness and acidity balance each other, so tasting prevents a soup that is too sour or too sweet.
“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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