Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the egg and lemon juice (or water) and mix well.
Cook the sauce
In a saucepan, combine the mixture with the cinnamon and water.
Cook over medium heat until the sauce is clear.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Butter + lemontop 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).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the sauce its body when creamed with butter.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps bind the sauce as it cooks.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm aroma and flavor.
The step that matters
Cook over medium heat until clear. Egg and butter mixtures can curdle or scorch if heated too fast. Gentle heat with steady stirring lets the sauce warm evenly, thicken smoothly, and stay free of lumps.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon. 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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