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Dessert

Snow Pudding

A chilled gelatin dessert made with lemon, sugar, egg whites, custard, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatin base

  1. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.

  2. Add lemon juice and sugar, then strain the mixture.

  3. When nearly cold, fold in the beaten egg whites and mix well.

  4. Pour into a glass dish and set aside.

Make the custard

  1. For the custard, whisk egg yolks, milk, and cornstarch in a double boiler.

  2. Cook until thickened, then flavor with vanilla.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 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

Gelatin
Sets the liquid mixture so it holds a light, wobbly shape when chilled.
Egg whites
Whipped into the cooled mixture to add lightness and an airy, foamy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness to its texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard by swelling with heat, giving it a smooth, stable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding richness and body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the sugared gelatin.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites in when the mixture is nearly cold. If the gelatin is still warm, the egg whites will deflate and lose their airy structure. If it has set too far, they will not blend in evenly, leaving lumps.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla. 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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