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 ↓
Lemon Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the jelly
Dissolve the sugar and corn starch in the water and lemon flavor.
Cook the mixture over medium heat until it thickens like boiled custard.
Pour the mixture into an earthen dish and let it cool.
Once cooled, invert the jelly onto a platter.
Top and bake
Beat the egg white with 2 tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks form.
Spread the egg white mixture over the top of the jelly.
Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven and brown slightly.
Serve
Serve with cream and sugar.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 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 lemon 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the water and sugar into a set, custard-like jelly as it cooks.
- Egg white
- Whipped into a stiff foam that forms a light topping and browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and the meringue topping, and helps the whipped egg white hold its peaks.
The step that matters
Cooking the mixture until it thickens. Corn starch thickens only once its granules swell in hot liquid and stir through the mixture. Stopping too early leaves a runny jelly that will not hold its shape when inverted.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, sugar, egg, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, 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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