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
Make the gelatine base
Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of cold water until soft.
Add the juice of 3 lemons and 2 cups of powdered sugar.
Pour in 1 quart of boiling water and stir until dissolved.
Strain and set aside until cold and partly stiff.
Whip and set
Place the mixture in a basin of crushed ice or ice water.
Beat continually until it is as white as snow.
Beat the whites of 4 eggs to a stiff froth.
Fold the beaten whites into the mixture.
Beat continuously for five minutes.
Turn into fancy molds.
Set aside to harden.
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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Egg + lemontop 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 firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
- Whites of 4 eggs
- Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the pudding its light, airy, snowy texture.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Juice of 3 lemons
- Adds acidity and bright flavour that cuts through the sweetness.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture over ice until partly stiff, then fold in the egg whites. The gelatine must be cold and only partly set so it holds air when beaten. If it is too warm, the foam collapses; if it has set fully, the whites will not blend in smoothly and the light texture is lost.
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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