Lemonade is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 57 recipes to get you started.

What is lemonade?

Lemonade is a sweetened lemon drink, but in the kitchen it doubles as a ready-made cooking liquid. It already balances lemon juice with sugar and water, so it brings tartness and sweetness to a dish in one pour without you measuring each part.

You will see it two ways on a label. The bottled or made-up drink is mild and pourable. Frozen concentrate, sold in those little cardboard cans, is the same flavor squeezed down to about a quarter of the volume, so it is intense and packs real punch undiluted.

Cooking and Baking With Lemonade

Reach for the made-up drink when you want liquid plus flavor. It loosens a chicken braise and leaves a sweet-tart glaze, which is the trick behind Crockpot Lemon Chicken, where it slowly reduces around the meat.

It quietly raises lemon cakes and quick breads too. Lemonade Scones (Australian) lean on it for both the lemon note and the lift from any fizz, while Lush Lemon Cake and Lemonade Roll fold it into the batter for moisture and tang.

Frozen concentrate is the workhorse for cold desserts. Thawed but not diluted, it gives sorbet and icebox pies a sharp, concentrated lemon hit that watered-down juice cannot match. Frozen Lemonade Pie and Chilled Lemonade Dessert both build their whole flavor on it.

Behind the bar it stretches into punch and cocktails, softening spirits with sweet citrus.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Lemonade gets along with anything lemon loves: berries, peaches, mint, ginger, vanilla, and cream. In savory cooking it suits chicken and pork, where its sugar helps things brown and its acid keeps the dish from feeling heavy.

The classic mistake is treating concentrate and drink as the same thing. A recipe calling for thawed concentrate wants that full strength; pour in the diluted drink instead and the lemon goes faint and the dish runs thin. Check which one the recipe means.

The other slip is forgetting the built-in sugar. Lemonade is sweet, so cut back the sugar elsewhere in the recipe or the result turns cloying. Taste as you go, especially in glazes that reduce and concentrate.

Substitutes

The cleanest stand-in is fresh lemon juice with sugar and water added back. For a cup of regular lemonade, start with about 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar, and enough water to reach a cup, then adjust to taste.

To replace thawed concentrate, use roughly 4 parts fresh lemon juice to a little less sugar, since concentrate is mostly juice with sweetener and not much water. Bottled lemon juice works in a pinch but tastes flatter than fresh.

Limeade swaps in one for one if you do not mind a lime-leaning result. Avoid diet or zero-sugar lemonade in baking, since the missing sugar changes both browning and texture.

Buying and Storage

For drinking and most cooking, any not-from-concentrate bottle or fresh-squeezed pitcher does the job. For baking and frozen desserts, keep a can or two of frozen concentrate in the freezer; it stores for months and thaws in minutes.

An opened bottle or homemade batch belongs in the fridge and is best within about a week, since the fresh citrus dulls and the drink can start to ferment slightly. Give it a sniff before using.

Sealed frozen concentrate keeps well past a year in the freezer, though the brightest lemon flavor fades over time. Once thawed, treat it like the fresh drink and use it within a few days. Shake or stir any bottle before measuring, as pulp and sweetener settle.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find lemonade: Lemonade is usually found in the frozen foods section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Lemonade is a member of the Beverages US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

柠檬水

British (UK) term

Lemonade

en français

limonade

en español

limonada

How much does lemonade weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 fl oz	36 grams
1 can (12 fl oz)	438 grams
1 can (6 fl oz)	219 grams

Related

Beverages

Recipes using lemonade

There are 57 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 57 recipes

More lemonade recipes

• Brandy Smashes
• Cheesecake Cake
• Chowning's Tavern Wine Cooler
• Crock Pot Lemon Chicken
• Favourite Crock Pot Lemonade Chicken
• Gingerbread Scones with Lemon Breakfast Cream
• Hold-The-Sugar Apple Pie
• Lemonade Roll
• Lush Lemon Cake
• Plum Barbecue Sauce
• Rosemary Chicken Wings
• Slow Cooker Lemonade Chicken
• Super Lemonade Pie