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Dessert

Lemon Pudding

A baked lemon custard made with sugar, eggs, butter, crackers, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lemon Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, rolled cracker, and beaten eggs; mix thoroughly.

  2. Stir in the grated lemon rind and juice.

  3. Gradually add milk while mixing well.

  4. Pour the mixture into deep, lined plates.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the hot oven for 8 to 10 minutes, then reduce the heat.

  2. Let cool before serving.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a tender, custard-like texture when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender crumb.
White sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
Rolled cracker
Absorbs liquid and gives the pudding body and a light crumb.
Lemon rind and juice
Provides aromatic oils and acidity for a bright lemon flavour.

The step that matters

Bake in the hot oven for 8 to 10 minutes, then reduce the heat. Eggs set through heat; a hot start sets the structure, and lowering the heat afterward helps prevent the pudding from over-browning or curdling and turning rubbery.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, milk. 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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