Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the lemon base
Dissolve cornstarch in cold water.
Pour slowly into boiling water, stirring thoroughly.
Add sugar, grated lemon rind, and lemon juice.
Finish and serve
Beat the hot mixture gradually into the stiffened egg whites for 1 minute.
Pour into a mold and serve with cold custard sauce made from the egg yolks.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the hot liquid into a soft, sliceable set as it cooks.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they lighten the pudding and give it an airy texture.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the cold custard sauce served alongside, adding richness and body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the pudding's flavor against the sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
The step that matters
Beating the hot mixture into the egg whites. Adding the hot mixture slowly while beating keeps the stiff egg white foam from deflating. Pouring it in all at once or beating too little can leave the pudding dense and uneven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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