Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Orange Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Juice the oranges and lemon, and grate the lemon rind.
Add enough water to the fruit juice to make 1½ pints of liquid and heat it.
Stir in the sugar until dissolved.
Make the custard
Mix the cornflour with a spoonful of cold water until smooth, then add to the hot fruit juice to thicken, boiling for one minute.
Set aside to cool slightly.
Beat the eggs well, then carefully mix them into the cooled liquid.
Return the mixture to a gentle heat, stirring constantly until it thickens, but do not let it boil.
Once cooled, serve in custard glasses or over macaroons.
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.
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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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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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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Eggs
- Beaten eggs set when gently heated, thickening the custard and giving it body.
- Cornflour
- Starch swells in hot liquid, thickening the juice into a smooth base.
- Oranges
- Juice supplies the main flavour, acidity and liquid for the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and balances the sharpness of the citrus.
- Lemon
- Adds sharp acidity and aromatic zest to brighten the custard.
The step that matters
Returning the mixture to gentle heat. Egg proteins set and thicken the custard when heated gently, but boiling can curdle or scramble them. Stirring constantly and keeping the heat low prevents lumps and keeps the texture smooth.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, egg, sugar):
- Orangethe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Limefits less well
- Raisinfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, 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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