Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, 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.
Prepare the filling
Grate the rind of the lemons and squeeze the juice into a bowl.
Add the sugar to the lemon juice.
Beat the egg yolks until light.
Mix the beaten yolks with the sugar and lemon.
In a separate bowl, mix the corn starch with a little cold water.
Pour boiling water into the corn starch mixture until it is clear and thick.
Combine the corn starch mixture with the lemon mixture.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.
Make the meringue
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Gradually add ½ cup of sugar to the beaten egg whites.
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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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the filling when heated, and whites whip into a foam for the meringue.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the lemon filling as it swells and sets when heated in liquid.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.
- Lemons
- Juice gives sharp acidity and the rind adds aromatic lemon flavour.
The step that matters
Cooking the cornstarch mixture with boiling water until clear and thick. Starch granules swell and thicken only when they are fully heated in liquid. If the mixture is not hot enough or not stirred well, the filling stays thin or can taste raw and starchy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, corn, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, egg. 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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