Why it works: Lemon and arrowroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Cheese
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.
Prepare the base
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine milk, lemon rind, sugar, butter, and egg yolks.
Butter a small pudding dish or line it with pastry, then pour in the mixture.
Bake until set and nicely browned.
Add the topping and finish
Whisk the egg whites until frothy.
Mix in arrowroot to firm the froth and add sugar to sweeten.
Place the froth in lumps on top of the pudding.
Return to the oven until lightly browned on top.
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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Lemon + arrowroottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together553 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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 + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the liquid custard base that sets when baked.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and help it set as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a frothy topping that bakes light and browns on top.
- Arrowroot
- Stabilises the whipped egg white froth so it holds its shape.
- White sugar
- Sweetens both the custard and the egg white topping.
The step that matters
Whisking the egg whites until frothy. Egg whites need to be whisked to a stable foam before the arrowroot and sugar are added. Under-whisked whites stay runny and sink into the custard, while the arrowroot helps the foam hold its shape in the oven.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, lemon, sugar, butter, egg):
- Asparagusfits better
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Potatofits about as well
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, sugar, butter, 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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