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Dessert

Lemon Custard

A custard made with lemon rind, cream, egg yolks, brandy, and Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Lemon Custard

Why it works: Cream and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,635 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Lemon Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the cream

  1. Soak the thin rind of the lemons in the cream until the flavor is extracted.

  2. Boil the cream, then gradually pour it over the well-whisked egg yolks.

Thicken the custard

  1. Remove the lemon rind, then add the brandy and Madeira.

  2. Pour the mixture into a jug and place it in a pan of boiling water.

  3. Stir continuously until the contents thicken.

Serve

  1. Serve in cups or on a dish.

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.

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.

  1. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and egg 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

Cream
Provides richness and fat, giving the custard a smooth, creamy body.
Egg yolks
Their proteins set as they heat, thickening the cream into a custard.
Lemon rind
Its aromatic oils flavor the cream with a bright lemon aroma.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavor layer to the custard.
Madeira
Adds aromatic depth and a hint of sweetness to the custard.

The step that matters

Stir continuously over the boiling water. Egg yolk proteins set when heated, so the custard thickens smoothly only if it is stirred and heated gently. If it gets too hot or sits still, the yolks can curdle and turn grainy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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