Skip to main content
Dessert

Citron Pudding

Citron pudding is a custard made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, salt, puff pastry, and preserved citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Citron Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line two deep pie plates with puff pastry.

  3. Cover the bottom with a layer of thinly sliced preserved citron.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks until very light and thick.

  2. Stir in the sugar and continue beating until well combined.

  3. Add the melted butter and a pinch of coarse sea salt, mixing well.

  4. Pour the egg mixture over the citron and bake until set.

Bake and serve

  1. Once baked, sift powdered sugar over the top before serving.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set, giving the pudding its rich, tender structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the beaten yolks stay smooth and well combined.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture in the baked custard.
Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky shell that holds the custard in each pie plate.
Preserved citron
Adds tart, aromatic flavour that contrasts with the sweet custard.

The step that matters

Beat the egg yolks until very light and thick. Beating whips air into the yolks and builds volume, so the custard bakes light and sets evenly rather than dense or uneven.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes