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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the custard
Beat the egg yolks and sugar until very light.
Mix the flour smoothly with the creamed butter, then add to the yolk mixture.
Stir in the lemon juice and grated rind, followed by the milk.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until fully combined.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until set.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 and whites, folded in beaten, lighten the pudding and give it structure as it sets.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smooth, tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the yolks beat to a light, stable mixture.
- Milk
- Provides liquid that gives the pudding its soft, custardy moisture.
- Lemon
- Juice adds acidity and sharp flavour, while the grated rind adds aroma.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture slightly so it holds its shape when baked.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when beaten stiff, and folding gently keeps that air in. Stirring vigorously would deflate the batter, leaving the pudding dense instead of light.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour. 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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