Why it works: Lemon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
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.
Make the custard
Mix the cornflour with a little milk to make a paste.
Combine the paste with boiling water, then add the egg yolks, sugar, and lemon juice and rind.
Stir well and bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir again.
Assemble and bake
Line a pie dish with pastry and spread a layer of jam on the bottom.
Pour the mixture into the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.
Layer and top
Once cooled, layer the sponge cake slices with the pudding mixture.
Beat the egg whites with a little sugar until stiff and spread on top of the pudding.
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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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Cornflour
- Starch that thickens the liquid into a smooth, sliceable custard when heated.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and thicken the custard; whites whip into a stiff topping that sets on baking.
- Lemon
- Juice gives sharp acidity and the grated rind adds fragrant lemon aroma.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the whipped egg whites hold their stiff structure.
- Sponge cakes
- Soft layers that give the dessert body and absorb some of the custard.
The step that matters
Bringing the cornflour mixture to a boil. Cornflour starch only thickens fully once it reaches boiling and swells. Stir constantly, because uneven heat can lump the starch or scramble the egg yolks, leaving a thin or grainy custard.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk. 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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