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 ↓
Coen Starch Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Grate the rind of the lemons and mix with the juice, sugar, and corn starch.
Stir this mixture into enough cold water to make it smooth.
Heat the milk in a pot until boiling, then add the lemon mixture while stirring continuously until it thickens.
Remove from heat and stir in the butter and eggs, continuing to stir to prevent burning.
Mold and set
Once thickened, pour into small cups or molds that have been dipped in cold water.
Let sit for one hour before turning out.
Alternate method
Blend 1 ounce of corn starch with a little cold milk until smooth.
Pour in 1 pint of boiling milk and stir.
Beat the egg whites with sugar and brandy, then add to the sauce and heat while stirring until thickened.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lemons
- Provide acidity and aroma, with the rind adding fragrant oils.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the sauce as its granules swell and gelatinise when heated.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base and gives the pudding its creamy body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the lemon.
- Eggs
- Enrich the custard and help it set as the proteins coagulate with heat.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richer flavour and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Stirring while the starch thickens. Corn starch thickens as it heats, but unstirred it can settle, lump, and scorch on the base of the pot. Continuous stirring keeps heat even and the sauce smooth.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, corn, milk, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, milk, butter, 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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