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Dessert

Lemon Conserve

A sweet lemon preserve made with sugar, butter, eggs, lemon juice and rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the powdered sugar, butter, 4 egg yolks, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  2. Stir gently over low heat until the mixture thickens to the consistency of honey.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool before using as a spread.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

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

Powdered white sugar
Sweetens the preserve and dissolves smoothly into the warm butter and lemon mixture.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and a silky mouthfeel as it melts.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the mixture as their proteins gently set during heating.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity and bright citrus flavor that balances the sweetness.
Lemon rind
Contributes fragrant citrus oils that add aroma to the preserve.

The step that matters

Stir gently over low heat until thickened. Egg yolk proteins set and thicken the mixture, but too much heat can overcook them and make the preserve grainy or scrambled. Gentle, steady heat and constant stirring keep it smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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