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Dessert

Lemon Flip

A chilled lemon custard made with lemon juice, rind, sugar, eggs, water, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Lemon Flip

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Remove the rind from 2 lemons in thin strips.

  2. Place the lemon rind in a jug with the sugar.

  3. Add the boiling water.

  4. Let it cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the well-beaten eggs, strained lemon juice, and sherry.

  2. Strain through a fine strainer, then serve.

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. Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Eggs
Add body and richness, giving the drink a smooth, slightly thick texture.
Lemon juice
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the drink's flavor.
Castor sugar
Sweetens and balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Lemon rind
Releases fragrant citrus oils into the boiling water for aroma.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a warm, wine-like depth of flavor.

The step that matters

Strain through a fine strainer. Eggs that are not fully beaten leave streaks or small clumps of white. Straining removes them and any rind bits, giving a smooth, clear result.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, sherry. 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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