Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.
Stir in the corn starch that has been mixed with a few tablespoons of cold water.
Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, add butter, and let cool.
Prepare the lemon mixture
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks until light, then mix in the sugar thoroughly.
Add the lemon juice and grated rind to the egg mixture and beat until creamy.
Gradually combine the cooled corn starch mixture with the lemon-egg mixture, stirring until smooth.
Bake and serve
Pour into a buttered baking dish and bake until set.
Top with meringue and brown 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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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 + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg yolks thicken the pudding and add richness and structure as they set.
- Corn starch
- Starch thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, stable custard.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it a soft, creamy texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemons
- Juice and rind provide acidity and bright lemon aroma.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and richer flavour.
The step that matters
Boil the cornstarch mixture fully. Starch only thickens properly once it reaches a full boil and is stirred constantly, so it does not stay thin or form lumps. Constant stirring keeps heat even and prevents scorching on the pan base.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, corn, milk, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, corn, milk, 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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