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Lemon Cream CusTARD

A chilled lemon custard made with lemon peel, water, cornstarch, egg yolks, egg whites, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Lemon Cream CusTARD

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon base

  1. Grate the peel of the lemon.

  2. Squeeze the juice of the lemon.

  3. Combine the peel and juice with water in a porcelain kettle and heat.

  4. Rub cornstarch smooth in a little water.

  5. Slowly pour the heated lemon water over the cornstarch while stirring.

Thicken and finish

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks and return to the stove to thicken like custard.

  2. Sweeten to taste.

  3. Remove from heat and fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Pour into custard cups and refrigerate until very cold before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with gentle heat.
Egg whites
Folded in last to add lightness and a delicate, airy texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the lemon water into a smooth, stable custard as it heats.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the heated lemon water over the cornstarch while stirring.. Adding hot liquid to starch too quickly, or without stirring, causes lumps. Pouring slowly while stirring lets the starch disperse evenly before it thickens.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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