Why it works: Lemon and arrowroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, combine milk, lemon rind, sugar, butter, and egg yolks.
Butter a small pudding dish or line it with pastry.
Make and bake the pudding
Pour the mixture into the dish and bake until set and browned.
Whisk the egg whites until frothy.
Mix in arrowroot and enough sugar to sweeten the icing.
Place the icing in lumps on top of the pudding.
Return to the oven until lightly browned on top.
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 + arrowroottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together553 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 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
- Egg yolks enrich and set the custard, while whites are whipped into the topping for lightness.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that cooks into a soft, custard-like pudding.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender texture to the pudding base.
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the sweetened egg white topping so it holds its shape in lumps.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and the topping, and helps the topping brown lightly.
The step that matters
Baking until set and browned. Egg yolks set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the custard runny, while overbaking can make it curdle or weep. Watch for a firm centre and light browning.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, lemon, sugar, butter, egg):
- Asparagusfits better
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Potatofits about as well
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, sugar, butter, 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.
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