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Lemon Custard

A custard made with lemon juice, sugar, butter, corn starch, eggs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Lemon Custard

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon water

  1. Slice the lemons and place them in the water.

  2. Boil until the lemon flavor is extracted, then remove and strain the water.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, butter, and sugar together.

  2. Pour the strained lemon water over the mixture.

  3. Return the mixture to the heat.

  4. Stir in the corn starch when ready to boil.

Finish the custard

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture after removing from heat.

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

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

  2. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Provide the main flavor, extracted into the water by boiling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps set the custard's body.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard as it heats to a boil.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the custard; whipped whites add lightness.

The step that matters

Stir in the corn starch when ready to boil. Cornstarch thickens only once it reaches a boil and its starch granules swell and gelatinize. Adding it too early or stirring too little can leave lumps or a thin custard.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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