Why it works: Lemon and milk 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 gelatine base
Dissolve the gelatine in boiling water.
When almost cold, add lemon juice and 1 cup of sugar.
Place in a cool place until it begins to thicken.
Beat the gelatine mixture until very light.
Whip and combine
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with 1 cup of sugar until stiff.
Combine the gelatine mixture and beaten egg whites, beating thoroughly for about 10 minutes.
Pour into a wet mold.
Make the custard sauce
Beat the egg yolks and add them to boiling milk.
Sweeten to taste and flavor with lemon.
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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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 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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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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).
Lemon and sugar 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, wobbly structure as it cools.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they lighten the pudding and give it its snowy texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the milk into a custard when gently heated, adding richness.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
The step that matters
Combine the gelatine mixture and beaten egg whites. The gelatine must be cool and just beginning to thicken before folding in the whites. If it is too warm, the foam collapses; if it has set too far, the mixture will not combine smoothly and stay light.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk. 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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