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Dessert

Lemon Custards

A custard made with sugar, lemon juice and zest, white wine, and eggs, cooked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Lemon Custards

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 ↓

Lemon Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon syrup

  1. Combine sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and white wine in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for a while.

  3. Remove the peels.

  4. Set aside a little liquid to cool.

Make the custard

  1. Pour the remaining mixture into a dish.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and egg whites.

  3. Mix the beaten eggs with the cooled liquid.

  4. Strain the mixture into the dish.

  5. Stir the mixture well.

  6. Place the dish in a water bath over low heat.

Finish and serve

  1. Once set, grate lemon zest on top.

  2. Optionally brown the custard with a salamander.

  3. Serve hot or cold.

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.

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.

  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

Double-refined sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and help it set as it gently cooks.
Egg whites
Add structure and lightness to the beaten egg mixture, helping it set.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavour to the custard.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, flavouring the liquid base of the custard.

The step that matters

Place the dish in a water bath over low heat.. Egg proteins set at gentle temperatures, and high heat can curdle or scramble the custard. A water bath keeps the heat even and low so the custard sets smooth.

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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