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Lemonade (Cup sugar cup lemon juice pint)
1 cup sugar 1/3 cup lemon juice 1 pint water Make syrup by boiling sugar and water twelve minutes; add fruit juice, cool, and dilute with ice-water to suit individual tastes. Lemon syrup may be bottled and kept on hand to use as needed.
A lemon syrup rather than a pitcher of lemonade: the sugar is dissolved by boiling, the juice added off the heat, and the concentrate diluted to taste at the glass.
- The twelve minutesBoiling 1 cup sugar with 1 pint water for twelve minutes drives off some of the water and leaves a thin syrup, not merely dissolved sugar. How much you lose depends on the pan and the vigour of the boil, so measure what you actually end up with; if you only stir the sugar into hot water instead, the finished concentrate will be noticeably weaker and thinner.
- Juice off the heatAdd the lemon juice only after the syrup comes off the burner. Boiling fresh citrus juice flattens the volatile oils and aroma and leaves a stewed, marmalade-like taste.
- How many lemonsOne third of a cup is just under 2 3/4 fluid ounces, which takes two to three medium lemons. Roll them firmly on the counter and juice at room temperature for the best yield.
- Yield and dilutionHow much concentrate you have depends on how far the syrup reduced. Start at around 3 tablespoons of syrup per 8 oz of ice water and adjust from there, which is what the recipe's "to suit individual tastes" invites.
- Keeping the syrupBottled lemon syrup is not shelf-stable at room temperature in the way the original implies; the acid helps but the sugar concentration here is too low to preserve it. Refrigerate in a clean sealed jar and use within about two weeks.
- Optional zestPeel two of the lemons in wide strips before juicing and steep the zest in the hot syrup for ten minutes, then strain. Most of a lemon's fragrance sits in the peel oil, not the juice.