Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon 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 ↓
Farina Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Combine the milk and salt in a saucepan.
Place the saucepan in a larger pan filled with boiling water.
Once the milk is boiling hot, mix the farina with a little cold water.
Stir the farina mixture into the milk, stirring constantly for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and add the butter and sugar, stirring until melted.
Beat the egg yolks and stir them into the mixture along with the cinnamon, lemon extract, and brandy.
Bake and serve
Beat the egg whites with 1 tablespoon of sugar until stiff.
Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the pudding mixture.
Pour the mixture into a pudding pan.
Place the pudding pan in the oven in a pan of boiling water.
Bake for 30 minutes.
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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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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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 + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,199 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard and whites, whipped and folded in, give the pudding a light, airy lift.
- Farina
- Starch that thickens the milk into a soft, sliceable pudding body as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the farina thickens and the eggs set into a custard.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stiffen the whipped egg whites.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and flavour to the pudding.
The step that matters
Stirring the farina into the milk. Farina must be stirred constantly while the milk is hot, or it clumps and thickens unevenly. Folding the whites gently keeps the air in them so the pudding stays light.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon, brandy. 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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