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
Make the custard base
Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.
Stir in the cornstarch mixed with a few spoonfuls of cold water.
Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and mix in the butter.
Let it cool.
Add the eggs and lemon
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and creamy.
Add the lemon juice and grated rind and beat until well combined.
Gradually mix the egg mixture into the cooled cornstarch and milk mixture until smooth.
Bake and serve
Pour into a buttered dish.
Bake until set.
Let cool.
Serve chilled.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 mixture into a smooth, sliceable base as it boils.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help the pudding set when baked.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy liquid base of the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the lemon's acidity.
- Lemons
- Provide the bright, acidic flavour and aroma from juice and rind.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a softer texture and richer mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Gradually mix the egg mixture into the cooled cornstarch and milk mixture. Adding the eggs gradually and to a cooled base keeps them from scrambling, so the pudding stays smooth and custard-like when baked.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- 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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