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Dessert

Lemon Pudding

A lemon custard thickened with starch and milk, baked in a pastry crust and topped with a sugar meringue icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Lemon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Grate the rind and press out the juice of four lemons.

  2. Mix the egg yolks of eight eggs, beaten very light, with the lemon.

  3. Dissolve the corn starch in the milk.

  4. Add the milk and starch to the lemon mixture and beat all well together.

  5. Sweeten to taste.

Bake and finish

  1. Have the crust ready and pour in the custard.

  2. Bake until thick.

  3. Make an icing of the eight whites and powdered sugar until stiff enough.

  4. Spread the icing over the puddings and brown slightly.

Second version

  1. For the second version, use the yolks of four eggs, eight tablespoonfuls of sugar, two of melted butter, and two lemons grated with rind and pulp, removing all seeds.

  2. Bake in paste.

  3. Use four tablespoonfuls of sugar to the four whites for the meringue.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

390Calories
15 gProtein
25 gFat
29 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Puddingnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard as they set during baking, giving it body.
Lemons
Juice and rind supply the sharp acidity and citrus aroma that define the pudding.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that carries the starch and sets into the custard.
Corn starch (in the method)
Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its shape when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard to balance the lemon's acidity and helps the meringue brown.

The step that matters

Baking until thick. Egg yolks and starch set as the custard heats; underbaking leaves it runny, while overbaking can make the eggs curdle and weep.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, 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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