Skip to main content
Dessert

A Rich Lemon Pudding

A steamed lemon pudding made with flour, bread crumbs, suet, sugar, lemon rind and juice, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,032 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

A Rich Lemon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the flour and bread crumbs in a bowl.

  2. Chop the suet finely, using some flour to prevent sticking.

Make the mixture

  1. Combine the suet and sugar with the flour and crumbs.

  2. Add the grated lemon rinds and strained lemon juice.

  3. Beat the eggs well and mix them into the other ingredients thoroughly.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a well-greased mold or basin.

  2. Cover the top with a piece of greased paper and steam for 4 hours.

  3. Serve turned out on a hot dish with lemon sauce.

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. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure and richness as the pudding sets.
Beef suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the steamed pudding moist and tender.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together while it steams.
Fresh white bread crumbs
Add body and soak up moisture, giving the pudding a light, soft texture.
Demerara sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
Lemons
Provide the aroma and sharp acidity that define the pudding's flavour.

The step that matters

Steam for the full time, covered. Steaming gently and fully cooks the egg and starch structure while keeping the pudding moist; a covered mould prevents surface drying and uneven setting.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, bread, beef, sugar, egg. 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 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes