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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the filling
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, sugar, and butter until smooth.
Add the wine, cream, crushed York biscuit (or almonds), grated lemons, and lemon juice; mix well.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Garnish the dish with pastry if desired.
Bake until set and lightly golden.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Biscuit + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together697 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 as they cook, giving the pudding its body and richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
- York biscuit
- Adds crumb and body to the filling, thickening it as it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until set and lightly golden. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding runny while overbaking can make it curdle and turn rubbery.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, wine, cream, biscuit):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits about as well
- Strawberryfits about as well
- 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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