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Lemon Filling for Taets, Cakes, Etc

A lemon-flavored filling made with sugar, egg, cornstarch, lemon rind and juice, simmered in a double boiler.

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 ↓

Lemon Filling for Taets, Cakes, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the sugar and egg together until creamy.

  2. Add the grated rind and juice of the lemon, along with the cornstarch, and blend thoroughly.

  3. Slowly pour in the boiling water while stirring.

  4. Place the mixture in a double boiler and simmer for 10 minutes.

  5. The filling is now ready for use.

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. Egg + lemontop 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

Egg
Thickens and enriches the filling as it cooks, adding richness and body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it heats, giving it a smooth, sliceable set.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon
Adds bright acidity and aroma from its rind and juice.

The step that matters

Pouring in the boiling water while stirring. Adding the hot liquid slowly while stirring keeps the egg and cornstarch dispersed, preventing lumps. Cooking gently in a double boiler then lets the starch thicken evenly without scrambling the egg.

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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