Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Sago 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the sago
Combine sago, water, lemon peel, and cinnamon in a pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until thickened.
Stir in white wine and sweeten with brown sugar.
Remove the lemon peel and cinnamon from the sago mixture.
Add the eggs and bake
Beat the egg yolks and egg whites separately in a bowl.
Mix the beaten eggs into the sago mixture.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30–40 minutes, with or without puff pastry.
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 + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Lemon + sugartop 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).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Sago
- Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it set when baked.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and lightness to the baked pudding.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the sago mixture.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a caramel-like depth of flavour.
The step that matters
Add the beaten eggs to the sago mixture. Eggs set when heated, so the sago mixture should be warm but not so hot that the eggs scramble. Adding them gradually and mixing well keeps the pudding smooth and evenly set.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, white wine, sugar, egg):
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Cinnamonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, white wine, 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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