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Dessert

Snow Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with breadcrumbs, sugar, milk, butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, and jam, baked until pale brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Snow Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Mix breadcrumbs, sugar, milk, butter, egg yolks, and lemon juice together.

  3. Butter a pie dish and spread jam at the bottom.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture over the jam and bake until pale brown.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and pour over the top.

  3. Return to the oven for a few minutes to stiffen.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Breadcrumbs
Provide the bulk of the base, soaking up the milk to form a soft custard layer.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whisked until stiff to form the light, airy snow topping.
Milk
Moistens the breadcrumbs and gives the custard its tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the topping brown lightly in the oven.
Jam
Forms a sweet fruity layer at the bottom of the pudding.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks; under-whisked whites collapse and make the topping flat, while the foam needs to be gently set in the oven without overbaking.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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