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 Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
In a double boiler, combine sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, and boiling water.
Once hot, mix in cornstarch that has been rubbed smooth with a little cold water.
Cook until the cornstarch is thoroughly cooked.
Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks and salt, adding a little of the mixture to the yolks first to prevent curdling.
Finish and chill
Beat egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture after it has cooled.
Pour into small glass dishes and refrigerate until very cold.
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.
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth, sliceable cream as it cooks.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it set with added richness and body.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and airy texture when folded in.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances the tartness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice and peel
- Provide the bright acidity and aroma that define the flavour.
The step that matters
Tempering the egg yolks. Adding a little hot mixture to the beaten yolks first raises their temperature gradually. Adding them straight to the hot mixture can scramble the yolk proteins and cause curdling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- 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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