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Dessert

Lemon Pudding

A sweet lemon custard pudding made with water, cornstarch, lemon juice, sugar, egg whites, and a vanilla‑flavored yolk custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Lemon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon base

  1. Boil 1 quart of water.

  2. Mix in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in a little water.

  3. Add the juice and grated rind of 2 lemons and 1 large cup of white sugar.

  4. Stir until thick.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat in 3 egg whites until stiff.

  2. Set aside to cool.

  3. Serve with a thin custard made from the yolks of eggs flavored with vanilla.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the boiling water into a soft, sliceable set.
Lemon juice and rind
Provides sharp acidity and bright lemon aroma.
White sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the lemon's tartness.
Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they lighten the pudding's texture with airy foam.
Egg yolks
Make the custard served alongside, adding richness and smoothness.

The step that matters

Stir until thick. Cornstarch must be fully dissolved and brought to a boil to thicken properly. Stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan, so the starch swells evenly into a smooth gel.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, vanilla. 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 lemon pudding recipes

Baked 36Boiled 25Cold 13Sauce 9Steamed 8Cornstarch 6 See all 470 →

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