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Dessert

Lemon Cream Filling

A sweet lemon custard made with sugar, cornstarch, butter, lemon rind and juice, cooked over boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Friday club, Yarmouth, Mass. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Cream Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Mix one cup sugar, three teaspoonfuls cornstarch, and one-fourth teaspoonful salt.

  2. Stir this into a cup of boiling water, stirring until smooth.

Cook and finish

  1. Place this over boiling water and cook ten minutes.

  2. Add the grated rind of half a lemon and the juice of one lemon, one tablespoonful butter, and one egg.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

618Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
111 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Friday club, Yarmouth, Mass. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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

Sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, sliceable filling when heated.
Lemon
Provides acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and mouthfeel.
Egg (in the method)
Adds richness and helps give the cooked filling body.

The step that matters

Cook the starch mixture for the full ten minutes. Cornstarch thickens only when heated fully, and stirring keeps it smooth. Undercooked starch leaves the filling thin and tasting raw, so the mixture needs steady heat and attention throughout.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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