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Dessert

Lemon Cream

A chilled lemon custard made with egg whites, yolks, and lemon juice, thickened over low heat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine spring water, beaten egg whites, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, and sugar in a pot; mix well.

  2. Heat the mixture over low heat, avoiding boiling.

  3. Once cool, stir in the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Return to low heat and cook until thickened.

Cool and serve

  1. Pour into a basin and stir frequently until cold.

  2. Transfer to custard glasses for serving.

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

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

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Egg whites
Provide protein that thickens the custard as it heats.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the custard set into a smooth texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright flavour that balances the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the lemon's tartness.

The step that matters

Heating over low heat without boiling. Egg proteins thicken gently at low temperatures. Boiling can curdle the eggs and leave the custard grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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