Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Mix the suet, bread crumbs, powdered sugar, flour, and grated lemon rind in a bowl.
Add the beaten eggs and lemon juice, mixing well.
Form the mixture into small balls and tie them in floured cloths.
Cook and serve
Boil the balls in water for 1 hour.
Serve with punch sauce or a compote of apples.
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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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Suet
- Adds fat and richness, keeping the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
- Bread crumbs
- Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set firm when cooked.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the mixture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright lemon flavour to the pudding.
The step that matters
Tying the balls in floured cloths. The cloth must be tightly floured and secured so the pudding keeps its shape and does not absorb water while boiling, which would make it soggy and loose.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, flour, 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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