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Dessert

★ Cream Dressing--Sweet

A sweet cream dressing suitable for fruits and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and lemon 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 ↓

★ Cream Dressing--Sweet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Combine 1 cup heavy cream or 2/3 cup light cream, 3 tablespoons sugar, 3 large eggs, and 3 tablespoons lemon juice.

  2. Beat cream, sugar, and eggs in the inner cup of a double boiler.

  3. Cook as for custard, then set the dish in cold water.

  4. Add lemon juice gradually, stirring, then a trifle of salt, and strain.

  5. Whip the remaining 1/3 of the cream and add it to the cold dressing.

Use

  1. Use for fruits, lettuce, cabbage, beets, celery, or carrots.

  2. If substituting sour cream for sweet, use 1–1½ tablespoons of lemon juice only.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

141Calories
7 gProtein
11 gFat
5 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Evora Bucknum Perkins. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and lemon 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

Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook into a smooth custard.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and body, and whipped portion lightens the texture.
Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the dressing and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the richness of the cream.

The step that matters

Cook as for custard in the double boiler. Gentle indirect heat lets the eggs thicken slowly. Overheating can curdle them into lumps, so the mixture must stay below boiling and be stirred.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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