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Dessert

Citron Creams

A lemon-flavored custard made with sugar, gelatine, eggs, and water.

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

Citron Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the yellow rind of the lemons into the loaf sugar.

  2. In a large saucepan, combine 1/4 pint of water, gelatine, lemon rind, lemon juice, and sugar.

Make the custard

  1. Cook slowly over low heat until the gelatine dissolves, but do not let it boil.

  2. Add the remaining water and the beaten yolks of the eggs.

  3. Stir until the mixture thickens.

  4. Remove from heat.

Set and unmould

  1. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Spoon the mixture into wet moulds, filling two pint moulds.

  3. When cold, turn them out by quickly dipping the moulds in hot water.

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. Sugar + lemontop 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).

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 mixture and whites add lightness and a airy, delicate texture.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid so the creams hold their shape when turned out.
Lemon juice
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Lemon rind
Contributes aromatic citrus oils that give the creams their lemon fragrance.
Loaf sugar
Provides sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatine without boiling. Gelatine must melt fully over gentle heat; boiling can weaken its setting power and make the mixture grainy or unevenly firm. Gentle heat also keeps the later thickening 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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