Why it works: Lemon and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,157 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
Zest the yellow part of the lemon rind and squeeze the juice from the lemons.
Cream together the butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
Beat the eggs until light and fluffy, then gradually stir them into the butter mixture.
Add the wine or brandy and mix well.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a dish with a broad edge and surround it with 2-3 layers of puff pastry.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Allow to cool, then grate white sugar on top before serving.
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 + 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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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).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender, smooth body to the filling.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the filling and dissolves smoothly into the creamed butter.
- Eggs
- Thicken and set the filling as they cook, giving it structure.
- Lemons
- Provide the main acidity and bright lemon aroma from zest and juice.
- Wine or brandy
- Adds aroma and depth of flavour to the filling.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a flaky, crisp crust around the filling as it bakes.
The step that matters
Beating the eggs and stirring them into the butter mixture. Adding beaten egg gradually, while stirring, lets it blend evenly into the butter and sugar. Adding it all at once can cause the mixture to curdle or separate, which leaves the filling grainy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Applefits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, wine. 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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