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Dessert

Little Citron Puddings

A small custard-like pudding flavored with citron peel, sugar, nutmeg, and egg yolks, steamed in buttered molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Little Citron Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Mix the flour with enough milk to make a smooth paste.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the remaining milk with the sugar until boiling.

  3. Stir the boiling milk into the flour mixture, then return to the saucepan.

  4. Cook over low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Transfer to a bowl and let cool slightly.

  6. Mix in the beaten egg yolks, grated nutmeg, and chopped citron.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter some dariole molds and pour the mixture into them.

  2. Place the molds in a steamer, cover with buttered paper, and steam gently for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Once set, turn the puddings out onto a hot dish and serve with wine sauce.

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.

  1. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Set the pudding into a firm, tender custard as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
Citron peel
Adds its bitter, aromatic flavour throughout the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour and yolks set into a custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the citron peel.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour paste over low heat. Stirring constantly over low heat keeps the starch from lumping and scorching, giving a smooth base before the eggs are added. Eggs added to a very hot mixture can scramble, so the base should cool slightly first.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, sugar, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, sugar, 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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