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 I
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding base
Soak the gelatine in cold water.
Dissolve the gelatine in boiling water, then add sugar and lemon juice.
Strain the mixture and set aside in a cool place, stirring occasionally until thick.
Whip and serve
Beat the mixture with a wire spoon or whisk until frothy.
Add the beaten egg whites and continue beating until stiff enough to hold its shape.
Mould or spoon onto a glass dish and serve cold with boiled 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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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 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 liquid into a firm, wobbly structure that holds the whipped foam.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam to give the pudding its light, airy, snowy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the sweetness.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be cooled and thickened first, then beaten until stiff enough to hold their shape. Under-beaten whites collapse and make the pudding dense, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy. Folding them into the nearly set gelatine mixture keeps the foam from deflating.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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