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Dessert

Lemon Cream

A chilled gelatin dessert flavored with lemon zest and juice, sweetened with sugar and enriched with egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Lemon Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine the cream and lemon zest in an enamelled saucepan.

  2. Add the gelatin and sugar.

  3. Boil gently for 10 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Beat the egg yolks.

  6. Add the beaten yolks to the mixture.

Thicken and set

  1. Place the basin with the mixture in a saucepan half full of boiling water.

  2. Stir constantly, ensuring it does not boil, until nearly cold.

  3. Strain the juice from the lemon through a sieve.

  4. Mix the strained juice with the cream. Stir quickly.

  5. Pour into an oiled mould.

  6. Once cold, turn it out in the usual way.

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

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Cream
Provides richness and a smooth, creamy body once chilled.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid cream into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the custard base when gently heated.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon
Adds bright acidity and aroma to the cream.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard over gentle heat. If the egg yolk mixture boils, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy, and the custard will not thicken smoothly. Keeping the water below boiling and stirring constantly lets the yolks thicken gently.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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