Why it works: Lemon and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,174 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
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.
Make the filling
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Beat the egg whites and yolks separately, then add them to the butter mixture.
Mix in the grated lemon rind, lemon juice, wine, and rose water until well combined.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a deep dish lined with puff pastry.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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 + rosetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,174 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Lemon + winetop 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).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the pudding its firm, custard-like structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for a tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps create a light texture when creamed with the butter.
- Lemon
- Lemon juice and rind provide acidity and bright citrus aroma.
- Rose water
- Adds a delicate floral aroma to the filling.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Egg proteins set with heat, so the pudding needs enough baking to firm up. Overbaking pushes the eggs too far, which can make the filling grainy, curdled, or weepy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, wine, rose):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Raspberryfits about as well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, wine, rose. 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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