Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Snow Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Beat the egg yolks in a bowl.
Pour the boiling milk over the yolks, stir well, and return to the saucepan.
Bring to a boil again and let cool slightly.
Add vanilla and set aside.
Make the jelly
Soak the gelatine in 1 pint of cold water for 1 hour.
Add 1 ½ cups sugar, lemon juice, and 1 pint of boiling water.
Stir until dissolved and strain through a jelly bag.
Reserve 1 pint of the gelatine mixture.
Place the rest on ice to freeze.
Make the snow and set
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gradually add ½ cup powdered sugar and the reserved gelatine mixture (make sure it's cool).
Pour the mixture into a mold.
Set in a cool place to stiffen.
Serve
Turn the mold onto a shallow glass dish.
Cut the jelly into triangular pieces and arrange around the pudding.
Pour the custard over both.
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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,961 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 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).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Milk
- Forms the body of the custard, giving it richness and a smooth, pourable texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they cook gently, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam, they trap air to give the snow its light, airy structure.
- Gelatine
- Sets the lemon mixture into a firm jelly that holds its shape when turned out.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet jelly and cuts through the richness.
The step that matters
Adding the cooled gelatine to the egg whites. If the gelatine mixture is still warm, it will melt the air bubbles in the whipped whites and the foam will deflate. Letting it cool first keeps the snow light and lets it stiffen in the mold.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, vanilla):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, vanilla. 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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