Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
A 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
Blanch and beat the Jordan almonds with the orange flower water.
Add the cold butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind.
Work the mixture in a marble mortar or wooden bowl until it looks white and light.
Assemble and bake
Line the bottom of a 4-cup dish with puff pastry.
Pour the pudding mixture into the dish.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,125 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Jordan almonds
- Provide the body and nutty flavour of the pudding base.
- Cold butter
- Adds richness and fat that gives the filling a tender texture.
- Egg yolks
- Set during baking to thicken the filling into a custard-like texture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and flavour of the pudding.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a flaky, golden crust that holds the pudding filling.
The step that matters
Working the mixture until white and light. Beating the butter, yolks and almonds together incorporates air and emulsifies the fat, giving a smooth, light filling rather than a dense or greasy one.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, butter, egg, lemon):
- Orangethe original
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raspberryfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, butter, egg, lemon. 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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