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 ↓
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 custard
Mix corn starch with a little cold water until thin.
Add the mixture to boiling water and boil until thickened.
Stir in sugar, lemon rind, beaten eggs, and salt.
Bake and serve
Butter a pudding dish and pour in the mixture.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.
Serve with cream.
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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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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the boiling water into a smooth, set base for the pudding.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help the pudding set as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon rind
- Adds bright lemon aroma and flavour from the peel's oils.
The step that matters
Boil the starch mixture until thickened. Corn starch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, and the starch must be well dispersed first. Stirring the cold-water slurry smooth before adding it prevents lumps, and boiling it long enough makes the base thick enough to hold its shape after baking.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, sugar, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, sugar, egg, 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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