Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Combine lemon juice, water, sugar, and cinnamon in a saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
In a cup, mix the boiling sauce with the well-beaten yolks of 2 eggs, stirring continuously.
Pour the mixture back into the pot and bring to a boil again, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and transfer to a sauce dish to cool.
Top and serve
Beat egg whites until stiff.
Mix powdered sugar into the beaten egg whites.
Spread the mixture on top of the cooled sauce.
Serve the sauce over pudding just before eating.
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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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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 + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the sauce as they set with heat while stirred into the hot liquid.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a stiff foam that forms the light topping over the cooled sauce.
- Lemon juice
- Adds the tart acidity that gives the sauce its bright flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the lemon juice.
The step that matters
Adding the hot sauce to the egg yolks. If the yolks are added too quickly or without constant stirring, they can scramble. Pouring a little hot liquid in while whisking gradually warms the yolks so they thicken smoothly when the mixture returns to the pot.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, 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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