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Lemon Custard

A custard made with lemon juice, sugar, water, and eggs, cooked gently and served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Lemon Custard

Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓

Lemon Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemon syrup

  1. Peel the lemons and squeeze the juice.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the lemon juice, sugar, and water; boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove the lemon peel from the mixture.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and egg whites together.

  2. Pour the hot liquid into the eggs, stirring constantly.

  3. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan.

  4. Heat gently for 3-4 minutes without boiling.

  5. Continue stirring after removing from heat until nearly cool.

Serve

  1. Pour into glasses.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

Lemon and sugar 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 custard as they set gently with heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help the custard set into a soft, delicate texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the sharp acidity of the lemon juice.
Lemons
Provide the juice that gives the custard its bright, tart lemon flavour.

The step that matters

Heating the custard without boiling. Egg proteins set as they warm, but if the mixture boils the eggs can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture. Heat gently and stir to keep it smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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