Name: Another Lemon Cream
Ingredients: 1 large spoonful of brandy; 6 ounces of loaf sugar; peel and juice of 2 lemons; 1 pint of cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Another Lemon Cream

Ingredients

1 large spoonful of brandy
6 ounces of loaf sugar
peel and juice of 2 lemons
1 pint of cream

Directions

Grate the peel of the lemons.
In a bowl, mix the grated lemon peel, lemon juice, brandy, and sugar until well combined.
Add the cream and whisk until well blended.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,635 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Brandy + lemontop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,351 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Lemons: Provide the peel and juice that give the cream its bright, acidic flavour.
Loaf sugar: Sweetens the cream and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Cream: Provides richness and fat, and whisks into a smooth, thickened body.
Brandy: Adds a warm aroma that rounds out the lemon flavour.