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 ↓
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.
Make the filling
Grate the rind and press out the juice of the lemons.
Beat the egg yolks until very light and mix with the lemon juice and rind.
Dissolve the cornstarch in the milk and add to the mixture, beating well.
Sweeten to taste and pour into a prepared crust.
Bake and top
Bake until thick at 350°F (175°C).
For the icing, beat the egg whites with 4 tablespoons of sugar until stiff.
Spread the icing over the pudding and brown slightly.
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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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + buttertop 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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Butter + sugartop 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
- Egg yolks
- Enriches the filling and helps it set into a thick, custard-like texture when heated.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk and lemon mixture as it heats, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs and cornstarch set into a creamy custard.
- Lemons
- Provide the sharp acidity and bright aroma that define the pudding's flavor.
- Egg whites
- Whipped stiff to form a light topping that browns lightly in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilize the whipped egg white topping.
The step that matters
Bake until thick at 350°F (175°C).. Egg yolks and cornstarch must be heated enough to set the custard. Underbaking leaves it runny, while overbaking can make the filling grainy or weep.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, butter, sugar. 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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