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Dessert

Lemon Brandy Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with egg yolks, egg whites, lemon rind, brandy, milk, optional almonds and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Lemon Brandy Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and whites until well combined.

  3. Add the grated lemon rind and brandy to the egg mixture.

  4. If desired, mix in the finely pounded almonds and substitute half of the milk with cream.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding dish and bake for 1 hour.

  2. Serve warm or chilled.

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. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Provide richness and help the pudding set into a soft, custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Add structure and lightness, helping the pudding hold together as it bakes.
Lemon rind
Adds bright aromatic lemon flavour without extra liquid.
Brandy
Adds aromatic depth and flavour to the custard base.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that sets with the eggs into a tender custard.

The step that matters

Baking the pudding. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat. Baking gently at a low temperature keeps the custard tender and smooth rather than curdled or rubbery.

Swap the almond

The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, brandy, milk, cream):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, brandy, milk, cream. 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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