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 ↓
A Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the base
Combine broken sponge cakes, butter, and grated lemon peel in a basin.
Boil 1⅓ cups of milk.
Pour the boiled milk over the cake mixture and let it soak.
Whisk together 3 eggs and 5 egg yolks in another basin.
Beat the soaked cake and milk mixture until smooth.
Make the pudding and bake
Add the eggs, lemon juice, and sugar to the mixture.
Stir in the candied lemon peel and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a dish.
Bake in a warm oven (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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Penny sponge cakes
- Form the bulk of the pudding, soaking up milk to create a soft, tender body.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the pudding into a sliceable, custard-like texture.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, making the set custard smoother and creamier.
- Milk
- Softens the cake and provides moisture for a tender, custard-like crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
The step that matters
Baking until set. Eggs coagulate as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding runny while overbaking makes it curdled and rubbery. Bake gently until just set in the centre.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg, sugar. 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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