Why it works: Lemon and raspberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Raspberry Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Rub the raspberry jam through a fine sieve into a bowl.
Add the strained lemon juice and caster sugar to the bowl.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.
Transfer the cream to a glass dish and serve.
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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Lemon + raspberrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,109 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 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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Raspberry + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,101 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam, they trap air and give the cream its light, airy structure.
- Raspberry jam
- Provides the main raspberry flavour, colour, and fruit sweetness.
- Caster sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the whipped egg whites hold their shape.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the raspberry flavour and helps stabilise the egg white foam.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that makes the cream light. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves a dense, heavy result.
Swap the raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, sugar):
- Orangefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Limefits about as well
- Raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, 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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