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Dessert

Snow Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and lemon 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 ↓

Snow Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of five eggs well.

  2. In a pot, combine one quart of milk with the beaten yolks.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring well.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly; add a little vanilla.

  5. Set the custard in a cool place until needed.

Make the jelly

  1. Soak a box of gelatin in one pint of cold water for one hour.

  2. Dissolve a pound and a half of sugar, the juice of five lemons, and a quart of boiling water.

  3. Stir until all is dissolved, then strain through a jelly bag.

  4. Reserve one pint of the strained mixture and place the rest on ice to freeze.

Make the snow and set

  1. Beat the whites of the five eggs used for the custard until stiff.

  2. Fold into the beaten whites half a cup of pulverized sugar and the reserved pint of gelatin mixture, ensuring the mixture is cool to prevent flattening the eggs.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold or molds and set in a cool place to stiffen.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, turn the molded dessert out onto a shallow glass dish or bowl.

  2. Cut the jelly into triangular pieces and arrange around the custard.

  3. Pour the custard over the jelly and dessert.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

288Calories
15 gProtein
13 gFat
29 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + lemontop 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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites are beaten into stiff foam that gives the snow its light structure.
Gelatin (in the method)
Sets the strained lemon mixture so the molded dessert holds its shape when turned out.
Lemons
Their juice provides the acidity that gives the jelly its bright, tart flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and the beaten whites, and stabilizes the foam.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, providing richness and body.

The step that matters

Folding the gelatin mixture into the whites. The gelatin mixture must be cool but still liquid-thin enough to fold in. If it is too warm, it deflates the beaten egg whites; if it has set, it will not blend smoothly and the snow loses its airy texture.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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