Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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 and bake the pudding
In a large bowl, mix the lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, butter, cream, and beaten eggs until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a prepared crust.
Bake until set and lightly golden.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 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
- Beaten eggs set during baking to give the pudding its structure and custard-like body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture in the baked filling.
- Cream
- Adds fat and moisture, making the filling richer and softer after baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Provides acidity and bright lemon flavour that cuts through the richness of the eggs and cream.
The step that matters
Bake until set and lightly golden. Eggs thicken as they heat, but overbaking can make the custard curdle, weep, or turn rubbery. Pull it from the oven when the centre is just set and still has a slight wobble.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cream, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits about as well
- Raspberryfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream, 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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