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Dessert

Lemon Filling

A lemon and apple filling made by boiling lemon juice, pulp, sugar, and apples, then adding butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Lemon Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Juice the lemons and reserve some pulp.

  2. In a pot, combine lemon juice, pulp, sugar, and chopped apples.

  3. Boil the mixture for 2 hours, stirring frequently.

  4. After boiling, stir in the butter until melted.

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.

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. Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Lemons
Provide the acidity and bright flavour that define the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and thickens it as the mixture cooks down.
Apples
Add body and pectin that help the filling set as it cooks.
Eggs
Help thicken the filling and give it a smooth, rich texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a glossy, smooth finish.

The step that matters

Boiling the mixture for 2 hours, stirring frequently. Long cooking evaporates water and concentrates sugar and fruit pectin so the filling thickens. Frequent stirring keeps sugar and fruit from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, 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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