Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Lemon 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.
Make the custard base
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, egg yolks, flour, and milk.
Line a baking dish with pastry and pour the mixture into it.
Bake until set.
Top and finish
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gradually add the sugar.
Remove the pudding from the oven, spread the egg white mixture on top, and return it to the oven.
Bake until the top is light brown.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and enrich its texture as they set.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks to form a light meringue topping that browns in the oven.
- Flour
- Stabilises the filling so it sets into a sliceable custard rather than runny.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the eggs and flour set into a custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, in the meringue, helps stabilise the whipped whites.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet custard.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites under-whipped or greasy will not hold air, so the topping can weep or sink. Adding sugar gradually helps the foam stay glossy and stable while baking.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, milk. 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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