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
Prepare the pudding
Dissolve gelatin in cold water.
Add boiling water, sugar, and lemon juice; stir until sugar dissolves.
Beat the egg white until light.
When the mixture begins to thicken, fold in the beaten egg white.
Beat until smooth and nearly hard, then pour into three custard cups.
Serve
Serve with Soft 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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Sugar + lemontop 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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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 light, firm structure as it cools.
- Egg white
- Beaten into the mixture to create a light, airy foam texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and sharpens the sweetness.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg white. Fold the egg white in only once the mixture has begun to thicken. If it is too thin, the foam collapses and the pudding loses its light texture; if it has set too far, the white will not blend in evenly.
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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