Why it works: Milk and lemon 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 snow
Soak the gelatine in 1 cup of cold water for 1 hour.
Stir in 1⅓ cups of sugar, lemon juice, and boiling water.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
When the gelatine mixture is cold, whip it into the egg whites, one spoonful at a time, for 30 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a wet mold and refrigerate until set.
Make the custard and serve
To unmold, dip the mold in hot water and turn it out onto a glass dish.
Make a custard by heating the milk, egg yolks, and remaining sugar until it thickens, adding vanilla for flavor.
Pour the cold custard around the base of the meringue.
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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Milk + lemontop 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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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 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 liquid mixture into a light, firm structure that holds the whipped foam.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they create the airy foam that gives the pudding its snowy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilise the whipped mixture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the custard, providing richness and a creamy texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they heat, giving it a smooth, set texture.
The step that matters
Whipping the gelatine mixture into the egg whites. The gelatine mixture must be cold but still liquid, and it should be added gradually. If it is too warm, it deflates the egg white foam; if it is already setting, it forms lumps instead of blending smoothly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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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