To Make Yellow Lemmon Cream

This recipe comes from early 18th-century England, a time when cookery manuscripts circulated among gentry households, frequently in handwritten collections by and for women cooks. Citrus fruits like lemons were prized luxury imports, associated with refinement and fashionable entertainments. Rhenish wine (from the Rhineland region of Germany) was a highly regarded imported white wine, indicative of the trade links and culinary tastes of the upper classes. Egg-based lemon creams like this sit at the intersection of custard and syllabub recipes, showcasing the era's fondness for richly-accented, tangy-sweet desserts served in small, elegant Chinese porcelain (chinna) dishes—a status symbol in themselves.

In the early 1700s, cooks would have used earthenware or pewter bowls for beating eggs, a knife or small paring tool for peeling lemons, and linen cloths for straining liquids. Mixing was done by hand with birch or wooden whisks. Cooking was done over open hearths or on a charcoal chafing dish, with constant stirring by a wooden spoon to prevent scorching or curdling. The finished cream would be poured into delicate porcelain dishes for serving.