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Dessert

Lemon Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sago, breadcrumbs, eggs, milk, butter, sugar, and lemon juice and rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lemon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the sago in the milk over low heat until well softened.

  2. Add the butter to the sago and let it dissolve.

Mix and fill

  1. Mix in the breadcrumbs, sugar, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind.

  2. Beat the eggs well and combine them with the mixture thoroughly.

  3. Pour the mixture into 2 well-greased pudding basins.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the puddings for 2 hours.

  2. Serve with stewed fruit or white sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help the puddings set firm when steamed.
Breadcrumbs
Add bulk and body, giving the pudding a soft, tender structure.
Sago
Thickens the milk as it softens, adding a smooth, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, giving the pudding a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemons
Provide acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs well before combining. Thoroughly beaten eggs blend evenly into the mixture, so the pudding sets uniformly rather than in streaks or pockets when steamed.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, butter, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, butter, sugar. 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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