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 Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a bowl, mix the juice and grated peel of the lemon.
In another bowl, smooth 2 tablespoons of corn starch with the yolks of 3 eggs.
Make the cream
Add 1 cup of sugar and 1 pint of boiling water to the corn starch mixture.
Beat the 3 egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.
Pour into small glasses or cups and refrigerate until very cold.
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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Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the mixture so the cream sets into a soft, spoonable texture.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the cream as it thickens.
- Egg whites
- Beaten until stiff, they add lightness and airy volume to the cream.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice and peel
- Provide tart, aromatic lemon flavor and acidity.
The step that matters
Fold in the stiff egg whites. Egg whites must be beaten until stiff and folded gently so air is kept in the mixture. Deflating them by overmixing makes the cream dense instead of light and fluffy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg, sugar. 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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