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Dessert

Snow, Ice and Thaw Pudding

A gelatin-based pudding made with custard and topped with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Snow, Ice and Thaw Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water with sugar and lemon juice.

  2. Let it stand on the stove for a few minutes.

  3. Strain and set aside to harden for 12 hours.

Make the custard

  1. Make a soft custard by cooking egg yolks, milk, and sugar until thickened.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once the custard is cool, layer blocks of jelly.

  2. Top with beaten egg whites.

  3. Serve chilled.

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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gelatin
Sets the dissolved liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a soft custard as they cook and set.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and custard and balances the tart lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the jelly.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, giving it richness and body.
Egg whites
Beaten to a foam, they add a light, airy topping.

The step that matters

Cool the custard before layering the jelly. Adding jelly to warm custard can melt or blur the layers, and the custard must be cool enough to hold its own set. Cooking the yolks gently until thickened also prevents them from scrambling.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, 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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