Why it works: White wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓
14-wine Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a saucepan, combine the white wine and sugar.
Add lemon peel or cinnamon for flavor and boil gently.
In a bowl, beat the yolks of the eggs.
Gradually pour the wine mixture onto the eggs while stirring well.
Set and serve
Strain the mixture into a mold and set it in a saucepan of boiling water.
Serve cold.
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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White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Sugar + lemontop 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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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,586 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the wine mixture as they set, giving the cream its body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the wine and balances its acidity.
- White wine
- Provides the main liquid and the wine flavor of the cream.
The step that matters
Gradually pour the wine mixture onto the eggs while stirring well. Adding hot liquid to yolks too quickly can scramble them. Pouring slowly while stirring warms the yolks gently, so they thicken smoothly into a custard.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Applefits less well
- Plumfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, 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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