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Dessert

Lemon Custard

A custard made with eggs, sugar, butter, water, lemon, and cornstarch, folded with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Lemon Custard

Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemon water

  1. Slice the lemons.

  2. Boil them in the water until the flavor is extracted.

  3. Remove and drain the lemons.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, butter, and sugar together.

  2. Pour the lemon-infused water over the mixture and return it to the pot.

  3. When it is ready to boil, stir in the cornstarch.

  4. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  5. Gently fold them into the mixture after removing it from the heat.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and enrich it, while whites whipped to stiff peaks add lightness.
Cornstarch
Starch thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the custard its set body.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemons
Provide aroma and acidity, flavoring the water the custard is made with.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites in off the heat. Whipped whites deflate if the custard is too hot or overmixed, so folding gently after removing it from the heat keeps the airy structure and lightness.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter. 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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