Why it works: Lemon and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Lemon Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the infusion
Pare the peel of three large lemons into a pint of water and let it stand for 4–5 hours.
Remove the peels.
Add the juice of four lemons and the dissolved saccharin to the water.
Make the cream
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Mix the beaten egg whites into the lemon mixture.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
Set the strained mixture over low heat.
Stir continuously until thickened like cream.
Remove from heat.
Stir until cool.
Set and serve
Pour into a glass dish.
Refrigerate until set.
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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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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 whites
- Whipped to foam, they lighten the mixture and help it thicken and set into a cream.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity and bright flavour that defines the cream.
- Lemon peel
- Steeped in water to release aromatic oils and lemon flavour before straining.
The step that matters
Stir continuously while thickening. Egg whites can curdle, scorch or turn grainy if the mixture overheats or is left unstirred over low heat. Constant stirring keeps heat even so the mixture thickens smoothly.
“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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