Skip to main content
Dessert

Snow Custard

A chilled gelatin dessert made with sugar, lemon, eggs, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Snow Custard

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 Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the snow

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in boiling water, stirring until fully dissolved.

  2. Add the sugar and the juice of the lemons, along with the grated rind of one lemon.

  3. When the mixture is nearly cool, fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  4. Pour the mixture into a dish and let it harden.

Make the custard

  1. Combine the egg yolks and milk in a tin pail or pitcher.

  2. Sweeten to taste.

  3. Place the pail in a kettle of boiling water.

  4. Stir constantly until the custard thickens.

  5. Add salt and vanilla extract.

Serve

  1. Pour the custard over the hardened snow custard.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 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

Gelatine
Sets the lemon mixture so it holds its light, firm shape when cooled.
Egg whites
Beaten into the mixture to give the snow its airy, foamy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk custard as they heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, adding creaminess and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the snow and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemons
Add acidity and aroma from the juice and grated rind.

The step that matters

Stir the custard constantly over boiling water. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if they get too hot or are left unstirred they can curdle or scramble. Constant stirring over gentle heat keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

More snow custard recipes

Apple 3 See all 32 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes