Why it works: Beef and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,032 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
In a bowl, mix the shredded beef suet, bread crumbs, sugar, chopped lemon rind, and salt thoroughly.
Moisten the mixture with the beaten eggs and lemon juice.
Transfer the mixture into a buttered mold, filling it completely.
Tie a floured cloth over the mold.
Steam
Steam for 1 hour.
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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Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,032 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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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 + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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).
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Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon 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
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
- Bread crumbs
- Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the eggs and juice to set the texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture together and help it set firm as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharp lemon.
- Lemon rind
- Provides aromatic lemon oils that flavour the pudding throughout.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and moistens the crumbs.
The step that matters
Filling the mold completely. Leaving air gaps lets the pudding collapse or steam unevenly, and a tightly packed mold helps it hold its shape and cook through evenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, 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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