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Lemon Custard

A custard made with lemon juice, rind, eggs, cornstarch, and sugar.

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

Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Squeeze the lemon and grate the rind.

  2. Add the lemon juice and grated rind to 2 cups of water.

  3. Rub the cornstarch smooth in a small amount of the water.

  4. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl.

Cook and set

  1. Mix all ingredients together and cook in a custard kettle over medium heat.

  2. Sweeten to taste and pour into tumblers to cool.

  3. If preferred, beat the egg whites separately and fold them in last.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness and body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, set custard as it cooks.
Lemon
Provides the sharp, acidic citrus flavour and aroma.

The step that matters

Cook the custard over medium heat. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil to fully thicken, while eggs can scramble if overheated. Stirring constantly and keeping the heat moderate gives a smooth, thick custard.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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