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Dessert

Lemon Curd Without Lemons

A sweet, thickened spread made with butter, sugar, egg, citric acid, lemon essence, and water, without using fresh lemons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Curd Without Lemons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curd

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan with the cold water.

  2. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved and boiling slightly.

  3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the beaten egg mixed with citric acid.

  4. Return the pan to the heat and stir continuously until the mixture thickens.

Finish and store

  1. Add the essence of lemon and mix well.

  2. Pour into jars for storage.

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. Egg + lemontop 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

Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Sugar
Provides sweetness that balances the sourness of the citric acid.
Egg
Its proteins set as they heat, thickening the mixture into a curd.
Citric acid powder
Adds sharp acidity that gives the curd its tart, lemony bite.

The step that matters

Stir continuously while the curd thickens. The egg proteins set as the mixture heats. If the heat is too high or stirring stops, the egg can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth curd.

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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