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Dessert

Lemon Custard

A custard made with lemon rind, lemon juice, wine, brandy, and eggs, thickened over low heat and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Lemon Custard

Why it works: Wine and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,427 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Lemon Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until they are pale and thick.

  2. Add boiling water, grated lemon rind, and lemon juice, sweetening to taste.

  3. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened.

  4. Add the wine and brandy.

  5. Bring to a boil.

Combine and set

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Combine the beaten yolks and whites, mixing gently.

  3. Pour the mixture into a heatproof bowl.

  4. Place the bowl in a pot of boiling water.

  5. Stir until thick as custard.

  6. Strain into a deep dish.

  7. Cool and refrigerate until set.

  8. Serve in 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. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  2. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 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).

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 and add richness as they cook.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they lighten the custard with airy structure.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the custard's flavour.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth to the lemon flavour.

The step that matters

Stir until thick as custard. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle or scramble. Gentle, constant stirring over moderate heat keeps it smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, wine, brandy, sugar. 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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