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 Custard
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the custard
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and prepare a shallow pan of hot water.
Beat the 8 egg yolks and add the milk and 5 ounces of sugar.
Place the dish in the hot water and bake until the custard thickens.
Remove from the oven and let cool.
Top and finish
Beat the 4 egg whites until light, then add ½ pound of sugar and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.
Once the custard is cool, spoon the egg white mixture on top without letting it touch.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 set the custard, and whipped whites form the light topping.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the egg yolks set into a smooth custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
- Lemon juice
- Its acidity helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
The step that matters
Bake the custard in a water bath. The hot water surrounding the dish moderates the heat reaching the eggs. Gentle, even heat lets the yolks set smoothly, while direct high heat can overcook them, causing curdling or a grainy texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar. 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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