Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.
Make the custard base
Melt butter and sugar over medium heat, stirring until it boils.
Transfer the mixture to an earthen pot and grate the lemon rind into the pot.
Let the mixture cool.
Add the eggs and lemon
Beat the eggs.
Squeeze lemon juice over the eggs.
Mix the eggs and lemon juice with the cooled butter and sugar mixture.
Bake and serve
Place puff pastry in a dish.
Pour the mixture over the puff pastry.
Top with candied lemon peel.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) 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 + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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).
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
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving it body and structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky, tender texture to the filling.
- Lump sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps give it a smooth, glossy body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, rich custard.
- Lemon rind
- Contributes aromatic lemon oils that flavour the filling.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a crisp, flaky base under the custard.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. Eggs added to a very hot butter and sugar mixture can scramble instead of blending smoothly. Cooling first lets the eggs thicken gently and evenly during baking.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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