Why it works: Cream and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,640 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Lemon Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream
Pare the yellow rind very thin from four lemons.
Put the rinds in a quart of fresh cream and boil it.
Add the lemon
Squeeze and strain the juice of one lemon.
Saturate the lemon juice completely with powdered sugar.
When the cream is quite cold, stir it in, taking care that it does not curdle.
If not sufficiently sweet, add more sugar.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,640 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,640 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
- Fresh cream
- Forms the rich, thick body of the dessert and carries the lemon flavour.
- Lemon rind
- Infuses the cream with aromatic lemon oils when boiled in it.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and tartness that brightens the rich cream.
- Powdered sugar (in the method)
- Sweetens the cream and dissolves easily into the lemon juice.
The step that matters
Stirring in the lemon juice when the cream is cold. Acid from lemon juice can curdle warm dairy, causing it to separate and turn grainy. Letting the cream cool fully before stirring the juice in helps keep it smooth.
“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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