Lemon Cream
Source: Mary Randolph, 1824
History
Lemon Cream is one of the recipes in The Virginia House-Wife, Mary Randolph's cookbook first published in 1824 and generally regarded as the first regional American cookbook, gathering nearly 500 recipes. Randolph places it among the book's cold creams.
As printed, the dish is a dairy-free "cream." The thin-pared rind and strained juice of four lemons are put into a quart of sweetened water with the whites of six eggs beaten to a froth; the mixture is set over the fire and stirred until it thickens without boiling, then cooled and strained, returned to the fire with the yolks, and stirred until quite thick before being served in glasses.
This recipe belongs to an established Anglo-American family of egg-and-citrus "creams" rather than being unique to Randolph. A closely similar lemon cream had already been printed in American Cookery (1796) by Amelia Simmons — the first cookbook written by an American — using the juice of four lemons, water, sugar, and the whites of eggs with a single yolk, strained and heated "very hot, but not to boil". That earlier version is likewise dairy-free, and such fruit creams were a common dessert form of the period that has largely disappeared from modern menus.
Beyond this, the sources consulted do not document a specific social meaning, a single point of origin, or a chain of family transmission for this particular dish. Its documented history is that of a widely shared period dessert recorded in early American printed cookbooks.
Ingredients
- 4 fresh lemons
- 1 quart water
- sugar
- 6 eggs, whites
- 6 eggs, yolks
Instructions
- Pare the rind very thin from four fresh lemons, squeeze the juice, and strain it.
- Put them both into a quart of water and sweeten it to your taste.
- Add the whites of six eggs, beat to a froth.
- Set it over the fire and keep stirring until it thickens, but do not let it boil.
- Then pour it in a bowl; when cold, strain it through a sieve.
- Put it on the fire and add the yelks of the eggs.
- Stir it till quite thick, and serve it in glasses.