Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon 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 ↓
Cherry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a large bowl, mix the bread crumbs, sugar, eggs, milk, lemon rind, cinnamon, and salt until well combined.
Butter a pudding mold and spread a thick layer of the mixture in the bottom.
Assemble and steam
Add a layer of cherries, then another layer of the bread mixture, repeating until the mold is filled.
Cover tightly and steam for 2 hours.
Serve
Serve with a sweet sauce.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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
- Bread crumbs
- Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the milk and eggs to give it body.
- Eggs
- Set when steamed, binding the crumbs and milk into a firm, sliceable pudding.
- Milk
- Moistens the bread crumbs and helps form a custard-like texture as it sets.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the cherries and lemon.
- Cherries
- Add fruit flavor and moisture in layers through the pudding.
The step that matters
Cover tightly and steam for 2 hours. A tight cover keeps steam trapped around the mold so the pudding cooks gently and evenly. Loose covering lets moisture escape and can leave the top dry or the custard unevenly set.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, egg, milk, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, milk, cinnamon. 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.
More cherry pudding recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.