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Dessert

Lemon Cream

A chilled lemon gelatin dessert made with lemon peel, sugar, eggs, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lemon Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon base

  1. In a saucepan, simmer the shredded lemon peel in boiling water for 15 minutes.

  2. Add sugar and boil for 2 minutes, then strain the mixture.

  3. Stir in the beaten eggs and lemon juice, and cook over low heat until thickened, about 20 minutes.

Add gelatin and set

  1. Soak gelatin in 2 teaspoons of cold water until soft, then dissolve it in the lemon mixture.

  2. Combine both mixtures when nearly cold, and pour into a mold.

  3. Refrigerate overnight until 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. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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. Lemon + gelatintop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,215 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness and body.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Sugar
Sweetens the lemon mixture and balances its tartness.
Lemons
Supply the aromatic peel oils and the sour juice that flavour the dish.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs over low heat until thickened. Egg proteins set when heated, so high heat or long boiling can curdle the custard. Gentle heat thickens it smoothly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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