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Dessert

Gelatine Pudding

A chilled dessert made with gelatin, sugar, lemon juice, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Gelatine Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatine

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in boiling water.

  2. Add sugar and lemon juice; let cool but not cold.

  3. Beat in the egg whites until stiff.

Make the custard

  1. Make a soft custard with the egg yolks, 3 additional eggs, and milk.

Mold and serve

  1. Pour the beaten egg whites into molds.

  2. When ready to serve, turn out the molds and pour custard over.

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. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

Gelatine
Provides the structure that lets the pudding set and hold its shape in the mold.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff foam, they add lightness and an airy, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds moisture and creaminess.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and brightness that cut through the richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Let the gelatine cool but not cold before beating in the egg whites. If the gelatine is too cold it begins to set unevenly, so it cannot fold into the egg whites smoothly and the foam may collapse or leave lumps. Warm but cooled liquid keeps the mixture fluid enough to blend evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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