Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Lemon Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a bowl, mix corn starch with a little water and lemon juice.
In a saucepan, combine boiling water and sugar, then add the corn starch mixture.
Stir continuously and boil for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks.
Finish and serve
Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Pour into small glasses and refrigerate until cold.
Top each glass with whipped cream before serving.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Corn + lemontop 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).
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 into a smooth, set cream when it is boiled.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the cream and add richness and body as they are stirred in off heat.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and airy texture to the cream.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright lemon flavour that cuts through the sweetness.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg yolks off the heat. Adding yolks to very hot starch can scramble them, leaving specks. Removing the pan from heat first lets them blend in smoothly and enrich the cream without curdling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, egg, sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg, sugar, cream. 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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