Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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
Dissolve the gelatine in 1 cup of cold water and let it stand for 20 minutes.
Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the gelatine to dissolve it.
Sweeten the mixture to taste and add the juice of 3 lemons.
Fold and set
In a separate bowl, whip the whites of 3 eggs until they form stiff peaks.
Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the gelatine mixture.
Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.
Serve
Serve with boiled custard.
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 + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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 soft, sliceable structure as it cools.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam, they lighten the pudding and give it its airy, snowy texture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the pudding's flavour.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air, and stirring them vigorously knocks that air out. Folding gently keeps the foam intact so the pudding stays light after it sets.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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