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Dessert

Washington Lemon Pudding

A lemon pudding made with butter, sugar, stale sponge cake, eggs, brandy, rose water, and lemon zest and juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rose and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,174 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Washington Lemon Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Gradually add the sponge cake, mixing well.

  4. Stir in the lemon juice, grated lemon rind, brandy, and rose water alternately, mixing until well combined but not overbeaten.

Bake and finish

  1. Line deep pie plates with pastry and pour in the mixture.

  2. Bake until set, then let cool.

  3. Once cool, sift white sugar over the top.

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. Rose + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Brandy + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together560 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, carrying flavour through the filling.
Sponge cake
Adds body and a soft crumb that thickens the batter as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps create a light, airy texture when beaten with butter.

The step that matters

Mixing the filling. Overbeating incorporates too much air, which can cause the pudding to rise and then collapse or become tough. Mix only until the ingredients are combined.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, brandy, rose):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Currantfits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, brandy, rose. 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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