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 ↓
Baked Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the flavourings
Wash the lemons and grate the rind into a bowl with the sugar.
Crush the cinnamon stick in a mortar.
Add the crushed cinnamon to the sugar and mix well.
Make the pudding mixture
In a basin, combine the sugar and cinnamon mixture with the cake crumbs.
Juice the lemons and strain the juice into the basin.
Add the yolks of the eggs and mix until smooth.
Stir in the cream and milk with a wooden spoon.
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 lined 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 and enrich the custard, while whipped whites lighten the texture and help it rise.
- Cake crumbs
- Provide body and structure, soaking up the liquid so the pudding holds its shape.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the pudding a smooth, tender texture.
- Milk
- Supplies liquid that sets with the eggs into a soft, custard-like texture.
- Lemons
- Juice and rind add acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and, with the lemon rind, draws out its aromatic oils.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Overmixing deflates the foam and removes the air that lightens the pudding. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain, so the bake rises and stays tender.
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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