Why it works: Milk and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Custard Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a saucepan, heat the milk with the lemon peel until it boils.
Remove the peel and stir in the sugar.
Pour the hot milk over the beaten eggs and mix well.
Transfer the mixture to a buttered basin or tart dish.
Bake and serve
Place the dish in a larger saucepan with boiling water, ensuring the water reaches halfway up the sides.
Keep the water just bubbling and cook for about 20 minutes until set.
Serve hot or cold, and feel free to substitute the lemon peel with other flavors like strong coffee.
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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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving it body and structure.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a smooth custard.
- Lump sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.
The step that matters
Keep the water just bubbling. Egg custard sets gently; if the water boils hard or the heat is too high, the eggs can overcook, curdle and turn grainy or watery.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, 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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