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Dessert

Another Lemon Solid

A chilled lemon gelatin dessert made with isinglass, cream, milk, lemon juice, peel, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Another Lemon Solid

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Melt isinglass in a saucepan.

  2. Mix cream and new milk, then bring to a boil.

  3. Pour the boiling mixture over the lemon juice, lemon peel, and sugar.

  4. Whisk until cold.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a mold and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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

Isinglass
Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable gel as it chills.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth, creamy texture.
New milk
Adds liquid and body, softening the set for a creamier bite.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity that gives the dessert its bright, tart flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon peel
Adds aromatic oils that deepen the lemon flavor.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling mixture over the lemon juice. Hot dairy meeting acid can curdle its proteins, leaving grainy specks. Pouring steadily and whisking keeps the mixture smooth as it cools and sets.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, 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.

More lemon gelatin recipes

Dessert 21Pudding 16Orange 5Cream 4Jelly 4Custard 3 See all 39 →

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