Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Boil the sugar and water together for five minutes.
Dissolve the corn starch in a little cold water, then add it to the boiling mixture and cook for eight to ten minutes.
Finish and serve
Stir in the lemon juice, grated rind, and butter until the butter is melted.
Serve immediately.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and forms the base of the syrup.
- Corn starch
- Swells in boiling liquid and thickens the sauce as it cooks.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the sauce.
- Lemon rind
- Adds aromatic lemon oils for fragrance and flavour.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, glossy finish.
The step that matters
Cook the starch until it boils and thickens. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the liquid reaches a boil and the starch granules swell and gelatinize. Adding it to the boiling mixture and stirring keeps it from clumping, and cooking it long enough removes any raw starch taste.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, corn, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, butter. 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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