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Dessert

A Lemon Pudding

A sweet, custard-like dessert made with sponge cake, butter, lemon zest, milk, eggs, and candied peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

A Lemon Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Place the broken sponge cakes in a basin.

  2. Add the butter and grated lemon peel to the basin.

  3. Pour in the milk and let the mixture soak.

  4. In another basin, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks.

  5. Beat the soaked cake mixture until smooth.

Mix and bake

  1. Add the whisked eggs, lemon juice, and sugar to the mixture.

  2. Stir in the candied lemon peel slices.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish.

  4. Bake in a warm oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Sponge cakes
Soaked in milk, they form the body of the pudding and soak up the custard.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the pudding its structure and a tender, custardy texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the mixture set smoothly into a creamy texture.
Milk
Provides moisture and softens the cake, forming the custard base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender crumb.
Lemon peel
Contributes fragrant citrus aroma and bright flavour.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding runny while overbaking can make it curdled, grainy, or dry. Watch for a firm, just-set centre.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg, sugar. 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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