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 says “a fairly hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the filling
Combine breadcrumbs and sugar in a bowl, then add grated lemon rind.
Bring milk and butter to a boil in a saucepan.
Pour the hot milk mixture over the breadcrumb mixture.
Stir in lemon juice and egg yolks.
Cover and let the mixture soak.
Bake the pudding
Line a pie dish with short pastry and pour in the mixture.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 35 to 40 minutes until the pastry is crisp and the filling is set.
Top with meringue
Beat egg whites until stiff.
Add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the beaten egg whites to form a meringue.
Spread the meringue on top of the baked pudding.
Return to a 350°F (175°C) oven until the meringue is set.
Serve hot or cold.
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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Milk + lemontop 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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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
- Breadcrumbs
- Absorb the hot milk to form the soft, body-giving base of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the filling as it bakes, helping it set.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff foam to form the light, airy meringue topping.
- Milk
- Hydrates the breadcrumbs and forms the moist, custard-like body of the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and stabilises the whipped egg white meringue.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and sharpens the sweetness.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Under-beaten whites collapse and weep, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy. Stiff, glossy peaks hold air for a light meringue, and sugar added after whipping to stiff peaks helps keep the foam stable.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, butter. 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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