Why it works: Lemon and milk 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 gelatine base
Dissolve the gelatine in ½ cup of cold water and let it stand for 2 hours.
Add ½ cup of boiling water, lemon juice, and 2 cups of sugar to the gelatine mixture.
Strain and set aside to cool until stiff.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the gelatine until it looks like snow.
Mould the mixture and set it on ice.
Make the custard
For the custard, beat the 5 eggs with 5 heaping tablespoons of sugar until light.
Add the quart of milk and place the dish in a kettle of boiling water.
Stir the custard slowly in one direction until it thickens like salad dressing.
Remove from heat, strain into a cold dish, and stir constantly to prevent curdling.
Once cold, flavor the custard and set it on ice.
Serve
When ready to serve, unmould the pudding and pour the custard around it.
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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Lemon + milktop 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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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the lemon mixture into a firm, molded pudding.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they give the pudding its light, snowy airiness.
- Eggs
- Thicken the custard as they cook gently, giving it a smooth, rich body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding creaminess and softness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens both the lemon gelatine and the custard, balancing the tartness.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet gelatine base.
The step that matters
Stirring the custard over heat. Eggs thicken when gently heated but curdle if they get too hot or cook unevenly. Slow, constant stirring in a water bath spreads heat evenly, and straining after cooking catches any small set bits.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk. 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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