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Demon Cream, Made Without Cream

A lemon custard made without cream, thickened with egg whites and yolks, chilled before serving.

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 ↓

Demon Cream, Made Without Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Pour boiling water over the thin rinds of the lemons and sugar in a bowl; let sit for 1 hour.

  2. Beat the egg whites and yolks together, then add the lemon juice.

  3. Mix the egg mixture into the lemon and sugar mixture thoroughly.

Make the custard

  1. Strain the mixture into a deep jug and place it in a pan of boiling water.

  2. Stir continuously until the mixture thickens.

Set and chill

  1. Pour into glasses and stir occasionally until nearly cold.

  2. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before 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. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 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

Eggs
Egg proteins and yolks coagulate on gentle heat, thickening the custard into a soft set.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity that gives the custard its sharp, bright flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sourness of the lemon and softens the set.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins set when heated, so the mixture can curdle or turn grainy if heated unevenly or left unstirred. Constant stirring over gentle water-bath heat keeps it smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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