Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Souffles and Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Remove the stones from the cherries without making a large hole.
Break the stones and add the kernels to the cherries.
Make the pudding
In a saucepan, heat some clarified sugar and add the cherries.
Cook gently until the mixture thickens.
Transfer to a bowl and mix in the lemon juice and a small amount of clarified isinglass.
Chill the mixture on ice if available.
When ready, pour it into your timbale.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and bulk of the pudding.
- Clarified sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps thicken the cherry mixture as it cooks down.
- Clarified isinglass
- Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the mixture as it chills.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the cherry flavour and balances the sugar.
The step that matters
Cook gently until the mixture thickens. Cooking over high heat can scorch the sugar and fruit or break down pectin unevenly, so a gentle heat lets the mixture thicken smoothly before the isinglass is added.
“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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