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Dessert

Lemon-custard Filling

A lemon custard filling made with boiling water, lemon juice and rind, sugar, corn starch, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon-custard Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Combine sugar, boiling water, lemon juice and rind in a saucepan.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Blend corn-starch with a few drops of cold water.

  4. Stir the mixture into the boiling mixture.

  5. Stir while boiling for 2-3 minutes.

Temper the eggs and finish

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Gradually stir the boiling mixture into the eggs, stirring briskly.

  3. If the mixture is not thick enough, set it over boiling water and stir for a few minutes until it thickens slightly.

  4. Do not let it boil or it will curdle.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Remember it will thicken more as it cools.

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. Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

  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. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 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
Set and thicken the custard as they cook, and add richness.
Corn-starch
Thickens the mixture into a smooth, glossy filling when boiled.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps balance the tartness of the lemon.
Lemon
Supplies acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.

The step that matters

Tempering the eggs with the hot mixture. Adding the boiling mixture to the eggs too quickly, or letting the custard boil afterward, can scramble the eggs and make the filling curdle. Stirring briskly while adding the hot mixture gently warms the eggs so they blend in smoothly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, 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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