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
Cook the base
Boil 1 quart of water with ½ pound of sugar.
Mix 2 tablespoons of corn starch with 4 egg yolks.
Stir the corn starch mixture into the boiling sugar water.
Finish the cream
Remove from heat as soon as it begins to thicken.
Mix in the zest and juice of 2 lemons and 1 ounce of butter.
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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Egg + buttertop 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Corn starch
- Swells in the hot liquid to thicken the cream into a smooth custard.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help set the cream as they thicken with heat.
- Lemon zest and juice
- Provide acidity and bright citrus aroma.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a silkier texture and a glossy finish.
The step that matters
Remove from heat as soon as it begins to thicken. Egg yolks can curdle and turn grainy if overheated, and the starch keeps setting as it cools. Taking the pan off the heat at first thickening keeps the cream smooth and prevents it from becoming gluey or scrambled.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, corn, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, egg, butter. 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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