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Dessert

Snow Pudding

A gelatin dessert made with Knox's gelatin, sugar, water, milk, eggs, cornstarch, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatin

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in cool water.

  2. Add the sugar.

  3. Stir in the boiling water. Mix well.

  4. Add your chosen flavoring.

  5. Let it thicken.

Whip and fold

  1. Whip the mixture with an egg beater until fluffy.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Fold the beaten egg whites into the gelatin mixture.

Make the custard

  1. Combine the egg yolks, milk, sugar, cornstarch, salt, and flavoring in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over low heat.

  3. Stir until thickened.

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Gelatin + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 dessert so the whipped mixture holds its shape.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airy volume and a light, fluffy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk custard and add richness.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, adding creaminess.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as it cooks.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the gelatin mixture. Fold gently so the whipped egg whites keep their air. Stirring or beating hard deflates the foam, leaving a dense, less fluffy pudding.

“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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