Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Cream
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, combine boiling water and sugar.
Stir in corn starch until smooth.
Add lemon rind, lemon juice, butter, and egg yolk.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture shines.
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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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn starch
- Thickens the mixture into a smooth, spreadable cream as it cooks.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps set the cream as it cooks and thickens.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a silky mouthfeel and rich flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and adds body to the liquid base.
- Lemon juice
- Provides acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
The step that matters
Cook until the mixture shines. Corn starch must be heated to thicken the liquid, and the egg yolk must cook enough to set without curdling. Stopping too early leaves the cream thin, while overheating can make the egg yolk scramble.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, corn, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, butter, egg. 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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