Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the flavouring
Grate the rind of the lemons into the sugar.
Pound the cinnamon stick in a mortar with the sugar.
Combine the cinnamon-sugar mixture in a basin.
Make the custard
Add the cake crumbs to the basin and mix well.
Cut the lemons in half and strain the juice into the basin.
Add the yolks of the eggs and beat them into the mixture.
Stir in the cream and milk until smooth.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.
Bake
Line a pie dish with puff pastry.
Pour the mixture into the pie dish.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until set and lightly browned.
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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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Yolks thicken the custard as they set, and whipped whites lighten its texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the sharp lemon juice.
- Lemons
- Rind adds aroma and juice adds acidity to the custard.
- Cake crumbs
- Soak up liquid and give the pudding body and a soft crumb.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving a smoother, silkier texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid so the custard can set softly in the oven.
The step that matters
Fold in the whipped egg whites gently. Whites hold air only while whole; vigorous stirring deflates the foam, leaving a dense, flat pudding instead of a light one.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cream, milk, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream, milk, cinnamon. 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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