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Lemon Filling for Tarts, Cakes, Etc

A lemon filling made with sugar, egg, lemon rind, lemon juice, boiling water, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Filling for Tarts, Cakes, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, beat the sugar and egg until creamy.

  2. Add the grated lemon rind, lemon juice, and cornstarch, and blend thoroughly.

  3. Slowly pour in the boiling water while stirring.

  4. Place the mixture in a double saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes.

Finish

  1. The filling is now ready for use.

  2. You can substitute orange for lemon if desired.

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Egg proteins thicken and enrich the filling as they set with gentle heat.
Cornstarch
Starch thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the filling a smooth, set body.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity and bright lemon flavour that defines the filling.

The step that matters

Simmer in the double saucepan. Gentle, indirect heat lets the starch swell and the egg set without scrambling. Too much heat can curdle the egg or leave the cornstarch with a pasty taste.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. 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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