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Dessert

Lemon Puddings

A baked lemon pudding made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, wine, cream, York biscuits or almonds, and lemon zest and juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lemon Puddings

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with sugar until light and fluffy.

  2. Melt the butter and mix it into the egg mixture.

  3. Add the wine, cream, grated lemons, and lemon juice; stir well.

  4. Fold in the finely pounded York biscuit or chopped almonds.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  2. Garnish the top with a pastry crust if desired.

  3. Bake for about 30–40 minutes or until set.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Biscuit + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Set the custard and add richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the egg yolks whip to a light, fluffy base.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and mouthfeel.
Lemons
Provide the main lemon aroma and bright acidity that cut the sweetness.
York biscuit
Adds body and a fine crumb that thickens the mixture as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg yolks set as they heat, so underbaking leaves a runny center while overbaking can make the custard grainy or curdled. Check for a firm top and a slight wobble in the middle.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, wine, cream, biscuit):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits about as well
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, wine, cream, biscuit. 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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