Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Imperial Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Strain the juice of the lemons into a deep glass dish.
Boil the cream with the thin rind of a lemon.
Make the cream
Pour the cream into a jug, gradually stirring in the powdered sugar until dissolved.
Keep stirring until the cream is nearly cold.
Combine and set
Add the cream to the lemon juice, mixing well as it pours from the jug.
Allow the mixture to set for several hours.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + creamtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,640 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Cream
- Provides richness and body, and thickens into a smooth, set cream when combined with the juice.
- Lemons
- Supply the juice whose acidity thickens the cream and gives the dish its tart flavour.
- Powdered sugar
- Dissolves easily into the cream and adds sweetness to balance the lemon's tartness.
The step that matters
Add the cream to the lemon juice, mixing well as it pours from the jug.. The acid in the lemon juice causes the cream's proteins to thicken and set. Mixing well as it pours spreads the acid evenly, so the result sets smoothly rather than in uneven clumps.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. 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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