Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Snow Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Dissolve the gelatine in boiling water and let it cool slightly.
Beat the gelatine mixture with the egg whites for 30 minutes.
Add sugar and lemon juice to the mixture and combine well.
Add the custard
Make a custard with the egg yolks and pour it over the gelatine mixture.
Stir in the grated lemon rinds into the custard.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Gelatine
- Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam that lightens the pudding's texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilise the beaten foam.
- Lemon juice
- Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness.
- Grated lemon rind
- Adds fragrant lemon aroma from the peel's oils.
The step that matters
Beat the gelatine while it is still syrupy. Gelatine begins to set as it cools, so if it firms up before beating, it cannot trap air properly and the foam will be dense rather than light. Beat it soon after it has cooled slightly, while it still flows easily.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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