Name: Lemon Pudding
Ingredients: 1 small lemon; 3 eggs; ¼ pound powdered white sugar (1 cup); ¼ pound fresh butter, washed (1 stick); 1 tablespoon white wine; 1 tablespoon brandy; 1 teaspoon rose-water; 5 ounces sifted flour (1 cup); ¼ pound fresh butter for the paste (1 stick)

Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Lemon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Grate the yellow part of the lemon rind and squeeze the juice into a bowl, removing all seeds.
Mix the lemon juice and grated rind together.
In a deep bowl, combine the powdered sugar and cut in the butter until light and creamy.
Beat the eggs in a shallow pan until smooth and thick like custard.
Gradually stir the eggs into the butter and sugar mixture.
Add the wine, brandy, and rose-water, then stir in the lemon juice and rind.
Prepare a puff pastry with the sifted flour and butter, using as little water as possible.
Roll out the pastry into a thin circle, thicker at the edges, to fit a buttered soup plate.
Place the pastry in the plate neatly.

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.

Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together620 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,832 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lemon + rosetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,174 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits about as well
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, white wine, brandy, rose, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.