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Dessert

Hamburg Cream, with Whipped Cream, Etc

A lemon custard dessert made with eggs, sugar, gelatin, and topped with whipped cream and candied cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Hamburg Cream, with Whipped Cream, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the lemon juice and half the sugar over hot water.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs and add the remaining sugar.

  3. Stir and cook the egg mixture in the lemon juice until thick.

  4. Add the gelatine softened in cold water and heat until hot.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites and let stand briefly to cook the whites.

Set and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a border mold and let it cool.

  2. Unmold and fill the center with whipped cream.

  3. Garnish with a few candied cherries.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and beaten whites lighten and add structure to the mixture.
Gelatine
Sets the lemon mixture so it holds its shape when unmolded.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity and bright flavour that balances the sugar and richness of the eggs.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps soften the egg proteins as they cook.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, soft contrast to the set lemon custard.

The step that matters

Stir and cook the egg mixture in the lemon juice until thick. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat; overheating makes them curdle or scramble, so cook slowly over hot water and stir constantly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream. 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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