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Dessert

Snow Custard

A custard made with sweet milk, eggs, sugar, cornstarch, and egg whites, flavored with lemon or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Snow Custard

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 Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat the sweet milk in a clean pot until scalding hot.

  2. Separate the eggs.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently slip the egg whites onto the hot milk.

  5. Turn the egg whites carefully to avoid cooking.

  6. Remove the egg whites and set them on a plate.

Make the custard

  1. Whip the egg yolks with the sugar.

  2. Gradually stir in the hot milk.

  3. Return the mixture to the stove.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring constantly.

  5. Remove it from heat to prevent curdling.

  6. Add the salt and cornstarch, stirring continuously.

  7. Flavor with lemon or vanilla to taste.

  8. Let it cool.

Serve

  1. Pour into a glass dish.

  2. Top with the reserved egg white froth.

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 + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Egg whites form the light, airy froth, while yolks thicken the custard and add richness.
Sweet milk
Forms the body of the custard, providing moisture and a creamy texture when thickened.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a smooth, set consistency.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped yolks.

The step that matters

Remove the custard from heat after it boils. Egg yolks can curdle and turn grainy if overheated, so the mixture must be taken off the heat as soon as it thickens while stirring constantly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, 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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