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.
Blend the cornstarch with a little cold water and add it to the boiling milk.
Boil for five minutes, stirring constantly.
While hot, mix in the butter and set aside to cool.
Combine and finish
Beat the egg yolks until light, gradually adding the sugar.
Thoroughly mix in the lemon juice and grated rind.
Gradually add the cooled milk mixture to the egg mixture, beating until thick and creamy.
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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Milk + lemontop 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the pudding and carries the other flavors.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and, when gently heated, help set the pudding into a thick, creamy texture.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk as it boils, giving the pudding its body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemons
- Provide acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.
The step that matters
Gradually add the cooled milk mixture to the egg mixture. Adding hot liquid to yolks too quickly can scramble the eggs. Adding the milk gradually while beating tempers the yolks so the custard stays smooth and thickens evenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, 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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