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Dessert

Vanilla Snow

A chilled gelatin dessert flavored with vanilla, sweetened with sugar, and topped with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Vanilla Snow

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatin

  1. Soak gelatin in cold water until soft.

  2. Add boiling water to the gelatin.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Let it cool until it begins to adhere to the sides of the vessel.

Whip the snow

  1. Stir in sugar, beaten egg whites, and vanilla.

  2. Beat until light and stiff, about 30 minutes.

Make the custard and serve

  1. Make a soft custard by cooking egg yolks with milk and corn starch until thick.

  2. Once the custard is cold, top it with the gelatin mixture.

  3. Serve with cream.

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.

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. Vanilla + milktop 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. Vanilla + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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 into a light, wobbly structure once it cools.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff foam that gives the snow its light, airy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
Milk
Forms the base of the soft custard, adding richness and creaminess.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard so it holds a smooth, spoonable body.

The step that matters

Beat until light and stiff. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks to trap air. Under-beaten whites collapse, and the snow loses its light texture. Stir the gelatin in while it is only just thickened, so it does not deflate the foam or set in lumps.

“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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