Why it works: Butter and milk 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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the filling
In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugar until well combined.
Melt the butter and add it to the egg mixture along with the milk, lemon rind, and lemon juice.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a deep pie tin lined with pastry.
Bake for 30 minutes or until set.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Set the custard when baked and add richness and structure to the filling.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture in the filling.
- Milk
- Provides liquid that gives the filling a soft, creamy body.
- Lemon rind
- Supplies aromatic lemon oils for fragrance and flavour.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that gives the pudding its bright, tart flavour.
The step that matters
Bake until just set. Egg proteins set as they heat, so underbaking leaves a runny filling while overbaking can make it curdled, grainy, or watery. Check that the centre is just firm.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk. 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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