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Dessert

Hamburg Cream

A custard dessert made from eggs, lemon, powdered sugar, and lemon rind, folded with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Hamburg Cream

Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓

Hamburg Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Separate the eggs.

  2. Beat the yolks with the sugar, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind until light.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and stir until it thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Fold the egg whites into the mixture gently.

  3. Pour into glass custard cups.

  4. Serve cold.

  5. Serve with puff pastry fingers or plain biscuits.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + sugartop 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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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
Yolks thicken the custard when heated, and whipped whites lighten the texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and dissolves smoothly into the beaten yolks.
Lemon rind
Adds aromatic lemon oil for flavour without extra liquid.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the custard.

The step that matters

Thickening the custard in the double boiler. Yolks set when heated, so gentle, indirect heat and constant stirring prevent scrambling. Overheating curdles the eggs and leaves a grainy texture.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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