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Lemon Filling

A thick lemon filling made with cornstarch, butter, sugar, water, lemon rind, juice, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix cornstarch, butter, and sugar with a little cold water.

  2. Stir this mixture into boiling water and cook until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and add the grated lemon rind and juice.

  4. Pour the mixture over a well-beaten egg and beat well.

Cool and spread

  1. Allow to cool, then spread the filling.

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

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

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

Cornstarch
Thickens the mixture as it cooks in the boiling water, giving the filling body.
Egg
Adds richness and helps set the filling when beaten into the hot mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture in the finished filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavour.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture over the egg and beat well. The egg must be beaten thoroughly so it blends evenly into the hot starch mixture. Beating quickly keeps it smooth and prevents lumps or bits of cooked egg from forming.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, 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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