Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Mix the bread crumbs, suet, brown sugar, flour, egg, milk, grated lemon rind, and lemon juice until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.
Boil for three hours.
Serve
Serve warm.
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.
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Bread crumbs
- Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
- Suet
- Adds fat for richness and a moist, tender crumb.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and helps it set as it cooks.
- Flour
- Adds structure and helps thicken the pudding.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavor.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright lemon flavor that cuts the richness.
The step that matters
Boil for three hours. Steaming or boiling slowly for the full time lets the egg and flour set into a firm, cohesive pudding. Stopping early leaves it wet and loose in the centre.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, flour, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, flour, egg, milk. 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.
More lemon pudding recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.