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Dessert

Lemon Foam

A dessert of lemon foam layered over custard and ladyfingers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Lemon Foam

Why it works: Lemon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Foam

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon base

  1. Combine hot water and sugar in an enamel saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Mix cornstarch with a little cold water, then add to the boiling mixture, stir well, and cook for 4-5 minutes.

  3. Squeeze in the lemon juice, stir thoroughly, remove from heat, and let cool.

Make the foam and custard

  1. Whip the egg whites to a froth in a separate bowl.

  2. Pour the cool cornstarch mixture slowly over the whipped egg whites while beating briskly until light and foamy.

  3. Heat 1 pint of milk with 2 tablespoons of sugar, whisk in the egg yolks, and cook until thickened.

Assemble

  1. Line a dish with ladyfingers dipped in milk, pour in the lemon foam, and cover with custard.

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 + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the boiling mixture so the lemon base holds its body.
Egg whites
Whipped into a froth to give the foam its light, airy structure.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook, giving it a smooth, set texture.
Lemon juice
Adds tartness that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard and softens the ladyfingers.

The step that matters

Pouring the cool cornstarch mixture into the egg whites. If the cornstarch mixture is still warm, it can deflate the whipped whites. Pouring slowly while beating briskly lets the foam absorb the base evenly and stay light.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk. 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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