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Dessert

Lemon Pudding, Cold

A chilled lemon custard made with milk, eggs, sugar, cornstarch, butter, lemon juice and zest.

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, Cold

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. In a small bowl, wet the cornstarch with some of the milk.

  2. In a saucepan, bring the remaining milk to a boil, then stir in the wet cornstarch, stirring constantly for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat, stir in the butter, and let it cool.

Finish and set

  1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then mix them into the cooled milk and cornstarch mixture.

  2. Gradually stir in the lemon juice and grated rind until smooth.

  3. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered dish or small cups dipped in cold water.

  4. Refrigerate until set, then serve cold with cream and sugar.

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. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 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. Sugar + buttertop 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable custard when heated and then set.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the custard set with a creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the cornstarch thickens.
Lemon juice
Adds tart acidity that balances the sugar and flavors the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the tartness of the lemon.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornstarch in the milk. Cornstarch must be stirred constantly while the milk boils so the starch gelatinizes evenly. If it is left to sit, lumps form and the custard will not set smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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