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A lemon custard made with boiling water, sugar, lemon rind, white wine, and egg yolks, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Cookery Up-to-date

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Combine boiling water and sugar.

  2. Rub sugar on the lemon rind.

  3. Stir well for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Add white wine.

  5. Strain into another jug.

  6. Add the beaten egg yolks.

Make the custard

  1. Place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water.

  2. Stir continuously until the mixture thickens, but do not let it boil.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Stir frequently until nearly cold.

Set and unmould

  1. Pour into a cold water-wetted mold, omitting any sediment.

  2. Dip the mold in hot water for a few seconds to loosen the jelly.

  3. Turn the jelly out of the mold.

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 + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + white winetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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 yolks
Thicken the mixture as they set gently, giving the custard its body and richness.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the sugar.
Lemon rind
Supplies aromatic oils that give the custard its lemon flavour.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until the mixture thickens, but do not let it boil.. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if the mixture boils they scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth custard.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Applefits less well
  4. Plumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, white wine, 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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