Skip to main content
Dessert

God Lemons

A lemon-flavored dessert made with sugar, cream, milk, isinglass, sherry, and brandy, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

God Lemons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon syrup

  1. Juice the lemons and mix with water and sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Heat gently, stirring constantly, and add thinly peeled lemon rind.

  3. Remove from heat when it reaches a proper consistency, ensuring it does not boil.

Make the blancmange

  1. For blancmange, combine milk, cream, and isinglass in a pot.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes, then remove lemon peel.

  3. Once nearly cold, stir in sherry and brandy, then pour into a mold to cool and set.

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. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly gel as it cools.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the set dessert.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that the isinglass sets into a blancmange.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the lemon mixture and balances its acidity.
Lemons
Provide the acidity and bright lemon flavor, with peel adding aroma.

The step that matters

Remove from heat before boiling the lemon mixture. Gentle heat keeps the lemon juice and sugar from scorching or turning bitter, while constant stirring prevents sticking. Boiling can spoil the flavor and texture of the syrup.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, milk, sherry, brandy. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipes