Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Moulded Snow Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Mix the corn starch with a little cold milk, then add it to the hot milk along with the salt and sugar.
Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Mould and chill
Mould the mixture and refrigerate until cold.
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 + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + eggtop 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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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk into a set, creamy pudding as it cooks.
- Egg whites
- Beaten and folded in to add lightness and a snowy, airy texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Gentle folding keeps the air trapped in the beaten whites, which gives the pudding its light, snowy texture. Vigorous stirring knocks out the air and makes the result dense.
“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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