Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.
Make the custard
Combine egg yolks, butter, sugar, and lemon juice in a double boiler.
Cook until the mixture reaches the consistency of cream.
Assemble and bake
Line a bowl with lady fingers.
Pour the pudding over the lady fingers.
Whip the egg whites to make meringue.
Spread the meringue over the top.
Brown the meringue lightly in a 350°F (175°C) 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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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Thicken the custard as they cook and give it richness.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps give the custard its body.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the lemon flavour.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the meringue topping, which browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard in the double boiler. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. If the mixture gets too hot, it can curdle or scramble, so it should be cooked slowly over simmering water and stirred until it reaches the consistency of cream.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, 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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