Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Rub the corn starch in cold water until smooth.
Add boiling water and stir until the mixture is clear.
Pour the mixture into a dish, then add sugar and butter.
When the mixture is almost cool, mix in the egg yolks and lemon juice.
Bake and top
Bake in a pastry crust.
Whip the egg whites, add sugar, and spread the meringue on top.
Brown the top in the oven.
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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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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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).
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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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving the filling its body.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the filling, adding richness and a smooth texture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds the sharp acidity that defines the pudding's flavour.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a meringue that sets and browns on top.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps the whipped whites hold their structure.
The step that matters
When the mixture is almost cool, mix in the egg yolks and lemon juice.. If the filling is still too hot, the egg yolks can scramble; cooling it slightly first lets them blend in smoothly and keeps the custard silky.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, sugar, butter, egg. 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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