Why it works: Milk and bread 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 Meringue Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.
Add the beaten yolks, sugar, butter rubbed to a cream, and lemon.
Bake in a buttered dish until firm and browned slightly.
Top and serve
Draw to the door of the oven and cover with a meringue of the whites whipped to a froth with three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and a little lemon juice.
Brown very slightly, sift powdered sugar over it and eat cold.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Milk + breadtop 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).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up the milk to form the body of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard base and whites whip into the meringue topping.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the bread crumbs soften in and the custard sets from.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the custard stay tender.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and bright flavour to the custard and meringue.
The step that matters
Bake until firm, then brown lightly. Egg proteins set the custard as it bakes; overbaking makes it curdle, weep and turn rubbery, while underbaking leaves it runny. The meringue browns quickly, so watch it closely.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, 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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