Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Custards
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Boil the milk with the cinnamon, sugar, and thinly pared lemon rind.
After a few minutes, pour the milk into a bowl.
Beat the eggs and add the cream, then mix well with the milk.
Strain the mixture into a pan and set it over low heat, stirring constantly until near boiling.
Finish and serve
Pour into a jug, stirring until nearly cold, and serve in custard glasses.
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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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set gently with heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and lightness to the mixture when beaten into the custard base.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs set into a smooth custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and cream.
- Cream
- Adds fat for a richer, softer texture and a silkier mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Stirring over low heat until near boiling. Egg proteins set at higher temperatures, so heating gently while stirring constantly keeps the custard smooth. Too much heat can curdle it into lumps.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, cream, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, cream, cinnamon. 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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