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Dessert

Snow Pudding

A chilled gelatin-based dessert made with egg whites, yolks, milk, sugar, lemon, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

Prepare the gelatine and whites

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in hot water.

  2. Beat the egg whites until very stiff.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, beat the egg yolks with sugar, then add milk and cook until thickened.

  2. Let the mixture cool, then flavor with vanilla.

Combine and set

  1. Once the gelatine is nearly solid, fold in the beaten egg whites and add lemon to taste.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they trap air and give the pudding its light, airy texture.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a soft, wobbly structure as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk custard as they cook, adding richness and body.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, adding creaminess and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the beaten yolks.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. If the gelatine has set too firm, it will not blend evenly and lumps form; if it is still too liquid, the whites deflate and the pudding loses its airiness. Fold gently and only once the gelatine is nearly solid.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, 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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