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Dessert

Lemon Curd or Cheesecake Mixture

A thickened lemon custard made with sugar, lemon rind, juice, clarified butter, and eggs, used for storage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter 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 Curd or Cheesecake Mixture

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curd

  1. In a saucepan, combine the sugar, lemon rind, lemon juice, and clarified butter over gentle heat until melted.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs until well mixed and strain them to avoid streaks.

  3. Gradually add the warm lemon mixture to the eggs while beating hard for several minutes.

  4. Continue to cook the mixture until thickened, if desired, but it's not necessary.

Jar and store

  1. Let the mixture cool completely, then transfer it to small jars.

  2. Cover the jars with parchment paper and store them in a cool, dry place.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 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. Lemon + eggtop 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
Set the curd into a thick, spreadable texture as they cook and thicken.
Sugar
Sweetens the curd and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavor that cuts through the richness.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the curd.

The step that matters

Adding the warm lemon mixture to the eggs. Pouring hot liquid into eggs too quickly can scramble them. Adding it gradually while beating hard tempers the eggs so the curd stays smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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