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Dessert

Imperial Cream

A lemon and brandy custard dessert made with cream, sugar, and lemon zest.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Imperial Cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Imperial Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Squeeze and strain the juice of the lemons and mix with the grated rind, brandy, and pounded sugar.

  2. Add the hot, sweetened cream and pour through a teapot.

Finish

  1. Pour the mixture from a height onto a dish placed on the floor.

  2. When cold, garnish with lemon peel.

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.

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.

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

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

  2. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

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

  4. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Lemon juice
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar and cream.
Lemon rind
Adds fragrant lemon oils for aroma and a brighter citrus flavor.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warm, complex flavor to the mixture.
Cream
Provides fat for richness, body, and a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the drink and softens the sharpness of the lemon.

The step that matters

Adding the hot cream to the lemon mixture. Lemon acid can curdle hot dairy if the two are combined carelessly. Pouring the mixture slowly through a teapot from a height blends the liquids gently and helps the texture stay smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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