Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Snow-Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gelatine
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour.
Make the pudding
Add boiling water, sugar, and lemon juice to the soaked gelatine.
Stir and strain the mixture, then let it stand overnight.
Beat the egg whites until very stiff and fold them into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a mold.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 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).
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
- Sets the liquid into a light, wobbly structure once it cools.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they lighten the pudding and give it its snowy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright flavour that cuts through the sweetness.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until very stiff. Under-beaten whites collapse when folded in, leaving a dense, flat pudding instead of a light, airy one. Whites beat best when clean and free of any yolk or grease.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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