Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 cream
Boil the cream with the lemon rind.
Sweeten with loaf sugar.
Stir until nearly cold.
Combine and serve
Strain the juice of the lemons into the serving bowl.
Pour the cream into the bowl from a height, then mix well with the juice.
Make this several hours before serving; it keeps well until the next day.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,640 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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
- Cream
- Forms the body of the dessert, setting into a rich, smooth texture as it cools.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet cream and thickens it slightly when mixed in.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon rind
- Infuses the cream with lemon aroma while it is heated.
The step that matters
Pour the cream into the bowl from a height. Pouring from above aerates the cream and helps the lemon juice blend in evenly, so the mixture stays smooth rather than separating or curdling in patches.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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