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Dessert

Nourishing Cream

A lemon custard made with eggs, saccharin, lemon rind, and juice, optionally flavored with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,340 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓

Nourishing Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add saccharin, grated rind, and strained juice of the lemon or orange.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth, adding saccharin while beating.

  4. Place the bowl with yolks in a pot of boiling water and cook gently, stirring constantly until thickened.

  5. Stir in the beaten egg whites until well mixed.

  6. Remove from heat and let cool.

Serve

  1. Serve in custard glasses.

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. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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

  3. Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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
Yolks thicken the custard as they cook, while whites add lightness and airy body.
Lemon or orange juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour that balances the sweetness.
Lemon or orange rind
Contributes aromatic citrus oils for flavour without adding extra liquid.

The step that matters

Cooking the yolks over boiling water. Egg yolks thicken at gentle heat and can scramble if overheated. Stirring constantly and keeping the water gently simmering spreads heat evenly and keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Currantfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, brandy. 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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