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Dessert

Egg Snow Pudding

A steamed pudding made from egg whites, milk, flour, ginger, and syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Egg Snow Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the egg white layer

  1. Grease a plain mold with butter.

  2. Coat the mold with 1 tablespoon of sugar, melting it over low heat until brown.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gently fold in 1 tablespoon of sugar and a few drops of flavoring.

  5. Pour the egg white mixture into the prepared mold.

  6. Cover the mixture with buttered paper.

  7. Steam the mold in a saucepan with enough water to float the mold for 45 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. In a separate saucepan, boil the milk and butter together while stirring continuously.

  2. Stir in the flour rapidly.

  3. Continue stirring until smooth and well-cooked.

  4. Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes.

  5. Add the egg yolks one at a time, stirring each in thoroughly.

  6. Mix in the ginger and syrup.

  7. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  8. Pour the mixture into a buttered and sugared mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 1 hour.

  2. Serve with Bose Sauce or Syrup Sauce.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they give the pudding its light, airy structure.
Flour
Cooked with hot milk and butter, it thickens the custard base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it body and softness.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps keep the mixture smooth.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and browns on the mold to add flavor.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stirring vigorously knocks air out of the whipped whites, which makes the pudding heavy instead of light. Fold gently so the foam stays intact.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vanilla, butter, milk, flour, syrup. 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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