Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pudding Sauces
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine the egg yolks, sugar, Madeira, and lemon peel.
Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
Serve
Serve in a sauceboat.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + madeira winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together343 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Madeira wine + lemontop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together466 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it a smooth, coating body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the yolks and the wine.
- Madeira wine
- Adds aroma and depth of flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the heat is too high, they scramble and curdle. Low heat and constant stirring let the sauce thicken smoothly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, madeira wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Currantfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, madeira wine. 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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