Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Lemon Custard Cheesecakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the custard
Combine butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a saucepan.
Add the eggs to the saucepan.
Place the saucepan in a larger pan of boiling water on the stove.
Stir continuously until the mixture thickens to a custard consistency.
Remove the saucepan from heat.
Place the saucepan in a bowl of cold water, stirring until completely cool.
Prepare the tartlets
Roll out the puff pastry to ¼ inch thick and cut into round pieces.
Place the pastry rounds in tartlet pans, pressing the center down with your thumb.
Fill each pastry with a teaspoon of the custard mixture.
Bake and serve
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until pale brown.
Remove from pans and let cool before serving on lace papers in glass or silver dishes.
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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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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).
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
- Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving it body and structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the custard.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the custard and dissolves smoothly into the mixture.
- Lemons
- Provide acidity and bright aroma from the juice and zest.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, layered shell that holds the custard.
The step that matters
Stir the custard over boiling water until it thickens. Eggs thicken when heated gently, but if the heat is too high or stirring stops, they can scramble and turn grainy. Constant stirring keeps the heat even so the custard sets smooth.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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