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Dessert

Snow Custard

A chilled dessert of gelatin, eggs, milk, sugar, lemon juice, and optional vanilla folded into meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Snow Custard

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 Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the snow

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Add 1 pint of boiling water to the soaked gelatine and stir until dissolved.

  3. Mix in ⅔ of the sugar and the lemon juice.

  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. Once the gelatine mixture is cold, gradually fold it into the egg whites.

  6. Pour the mixture into a mold that has been wet with cold water.

  7. Refrigerate for 4 to 5 hours until set.

Make the custard and serve

  1. To make the custard, heat the milk, egg yolks, and remaining sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Flavor the custard with vanilla and pour it around the set meringue when serving.

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.

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.

  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. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a firm, sliceable body that holds its shape.
Eggs
Whipped whites give the snow its airy lift; yolks enrich and thicken the custard.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, providing creaminess and body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to both the snow and the custard.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Fold the gelatine into the whites while it is cold but still liquid. If the gelatine is too warm, it deflates the whipped whites and the foam collapses. If it has begun to set, it forms lumps instead of a smooth, airy mixture.

“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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