Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Meringue Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Pit and stew cherries, sweetening and thickening them with cornstarch. Place the stewed cherries in the bottom of a pudding dish.
Cover the cherries with a layer of macaroons.
Make the lemon meringue
For the lemon cream, whisk together egg yolks, 1 dessert spoon cornstarch, cold water, juice and rind of 2 lemons, and 1 cup sugar.
Boil the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens.
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
When the lemon cream is cool, fold in the beaten whites.
Pour the lemon meringue over the cherries.
Bake and serve
Bake in the oven until a light brown color appears.
Serve very cold. Peaches can also be used this way.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| 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.
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Cherries (in the method)
- Provide the fruit base, sweetened and thickened with cornstarch into a moist layer.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the lemon cream as it cooks and add richness to it.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they give the meringue its light, airy structure.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the cherry filling and the lemon cream as they heat.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cherries and the lemon cream.
- Lemons
- Supply acidity and aroma from the juice and rind of the lemon cream.
The step that matters
Fold the beaten whites into the cooled lemon cream. Egg whites hold air only when whipped stiff, and folding gently preserves that foam. Adding them to warm cream or stirring vigorously would deflate the meringue, and the pudding would bake up dense rather than light.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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