Name: A German Custard Pudding-sauce
Ingredients: ½ pint of milk (or milk and cream mixed); 1-2 strips of fresh lemon rind; ½ inch of cinnamon stick; 1½-2 ounces of sugar; 3 eggs; ½ teaspoon of flour; a pinch of salt; 1 tablespoon of cold milk

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 ↓

A German Custard Pudding-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

In a saucepan, gently boil the milk with lemon rind, cinnamon, and sugar until flavored.
Strain the mixture and slowly pour it into the beaten yolks of the eggs, mixed with flour, salt, and cold milk. Stir the mixture gently as you add the milk.

Thicken and finish

Return the mixture to the saucepan and whisk rapidly until it thickens and looks creamy, holding it over the heat without direct contact.

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.

Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Milk: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavors and makes the sauce smooth.
Eggs: Their yolks thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat, giving it body.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.
Flour: Helps stabilize the custard so it is less likely to curdle when heated.

The step that matters

Returning the mixture to the heat. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but too much direct heat can scramble them. Holding the pan over the heat without direct contact and whisking rapidly keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Lemonthe original

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

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

Lemon Sherbet103 recipes

Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes

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A German Custard Pudding-sauce