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Dessert

Lemon Custard Sandwiches

A sandwich of sponge cake filled with lemon custard and topped with currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter 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 Custard Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Grate the rind of the lemons and juice them.

  2. In a bowl, combine the lemon juice, grated rind, beaten egg yolks, sugar, and butter.

  3. Thicken the mixture in a double boiler, stirring well.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the lemon custard between slices of sponge cake.

  2. Garnish each sandwich with a square of currant jelly.

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

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

  2. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving it a rich body.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and a silky mouthfeel in the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemons
Supply acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.
Sponge cake
Provides a light, absorbent base that holds the custard between layers.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture in a double boiler, stirring well. Egg yolks set at moderate heat and can scramble if overheated or left unstirred. A double boiler keeps the heat gentle, and constant stirring spreads it evenly so the custard thickens smoothly.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, egg, butter. 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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