Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Lemon Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Heat the egg yolks and milk in a saucepan until thick.
Pour the custard into a bowl.
In another saucepan, combine half the milk, ground rice, butter, lemon zest, and sugar.
Boil while stirring until thick.
Pour the rice mixture into the custard. Mix well.
Dissolve the gelatin in the remaining milk over low heat.
Boil for 1-2 minutes.
Stir the gelatin mixture into the custard.
Finish and set
Add the powdered sugar.
Wait until the mixture cools.
Mix in the strained lemon juice.
Pour the mixture into a well-oiled mold.
Refrigerate in a pan of cold water until set.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,778 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with heat.
- Ground rice
- Thickens the mixture and gives the cake a soft, sliceable body.
- Gelatin
- Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when cold.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that gives the dessert its bright lemon flavour.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the custard and rice thicken.
The step that matters
Stir the rice mixture into the custard and mix well. Adding thickened starch to hot egg custard can cause lumps if not mixed thoroughly. Thorough stirring keeps the texture smooth before the gelatin is added.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, rice, butter, sugar, gelatin):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, rice, butter, sugar, gelatin. 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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