Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓
Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the lemon cream
Combine egg yolks, castor sugar, and lemon juice and rind in a heatproof bowl.
Place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and cook gently, stirring constantly, until it thickens.
Remove from heat and fold in the whipped egg whites until well mixed.
Cool and serve
Let it cool and serve in small 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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 gently cook and set into a smooth, rich custard.
- Egg whites
- Whipped and folded in, they add lightness and an airy, fluffy texture.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the cream and helps stabilise the egg yolks while they cook.
- Lemon
- Provides the acidity and aroma that give the cream its bright flavour.
The step that matters
Cooking the yolk mixture over simmering water. Egg yolks thicken only within a gentle heat range; if the water boils too hard or the mixture overheats, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy. Constant stirring keeps the heat even so the custard thickens smoothly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- 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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