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CREAM, LEMON (another way) (Peel three lemons and be)
Peel three lemons, and be careful to leave the white pith untouched. Soak the thin rind in a quart of milk, and leave it until the latter is pleasantly flavoured. Then add the yolks of six eggs well beaten, and a pint of water sweetened with a quarter of a pound of sugar. Strain the milk, and simmer it over a gentle fire until it becomes of the consistency of cream, and pour it into jelly-glasses. Time, ten minutes to simmer the cream. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for one dozen and a half glasses.
A stirred lemon custard, thin enough to pour and set in small glasses. The instructions read in a slightly jumbled order, and the word "simmer" should not be taken literally.
- Never let it simmerDespite the wording, an egg-yolk custard curdles at around 185F/85C and will scramble outright if it approaches a boil. Cook it over the gentlest heat, stirring constantly, until it coats the back of a spoon — roughly 175-180F/80-82C. The stated ten minutes is a rough guide, not a target.
- Order of operationsAs written, the yolks go in before the milk is strained. Infuse the rind in the warm milk first, strain it out, then temper the strained milk into the beaten yolks and sweetened water, and return the whole to the pan.
- Imperial measuresCassell's is a British book: a quart is 40 fl oz, a pint 20 fl oz. In US terms that is about 5 cups milk and 2 1/2 cups water. A quarter pound of sugar is 4 oz, or a little over 1/2 cup.
- Why the pith mattersOnly the coloured zest carries the aromatic oil; the white pith is bitter and the bitterness leaches into hot milk. Pare the rind with a vegetable peeler in wide strips and check the underside.
- No lemon juiceThis is a rind-infused cream, not an acidulated one. Adding juice to the milk would curdle it. If you want sharper flavour, extend the infusion time rather than squeezing the fruit in.
- The pint of waterThe water sweetened with sugar dilutes the mixture considerably, which is why six yolks produce a pourable cream rather than a set custard. Reducing or omitting it gives a much richer, firmer result — a different dish from the one intended.
- Yield and vesselsA quart of milk and a pint of water comes to about 60 imperial fl oz, so eighteen glasses works out at a little over 3 fl oz each — small jelly-glasses rather than dessert bowls. In ordinary ramekins, expect ten to twelve servings.
- ChillingThe original gives no setting instruction. Pour while hot, cover the surface to prevent a skin, and refrigerate at least three hours; the cream thickens noticeably as it cools.
Lemon cream was a fixture of English dessert tables from the eighteenth century onward, and appears in cookery books in dozens of variants — some thickened with yolks as here, some with isinglass or gelatine, some merely cream whipped with lemon and sugar. Cassell's, published in parts from the 1870s and aimed at middle-class households running on a budget, gives a costing of 1s. 2d. for eighteen glasses: milk, water, sugar and six yolks stretched a long way. Jelly-glasses of the kind called for were a common Victorian serving vessel, and a modest quantity of cream divided among many small glasses would make a fuller showing than a single dish. A recipe using yolks alone would also have been convenient in a kitchen where whites were wanted separately for meringues, icing or clarifying.