Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a pudding dish with pie crust.
Make and bake the custard
In a bowl, combine milk, egg yolks, flour or cornstarch, sugar, lemon rind, and lemon juice.
Pour the custard mixture into the lined dish and bake until set.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the pudding.
Return to the oven and brown the top.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 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
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that forms the body of the custard.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set and add richness.
- Flour or cornstarch
- Thickens the custard so it holds its shape when cut.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the lemon's acidity.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright lemon flavor to the custard.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they form a light topping that browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Baking the custard until set. Underbaked custard stays runny because egg proteins have not yet coagulated, while overbaking makes it grainy and weeping as the proteins tighten too far. Watch for a set centre before adding the meringue.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, flour, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour, sugar. 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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