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Dessert

Lemon Snow

A lemon-flavored gelatin dessert made with sugar syrup, cornstarch, lemon juice, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Lemon Snow

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar, water, and lemon rind for 3 minutes.

  2. Remove the rind.

Thicken and set

  1. Mix cornstarch with cold water.

  2. Gradually add the cornstarch mixture to the syrup, stirring.

  3. Stir until the mixture thickens.

  4. Cook until there is no taste of raw starch.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Add strained lemon juice and beaten egg whites.

  7. Beat with a wire whisk until well combined.

  8. Pour into moistened molds and chill.

Serve

  1. Serve with Lemon Custard 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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the syrup into a firm, sliceable mixture as it cooks.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to add lightness and a foamy, snowy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and helps form the syrup base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavor to balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook until there is no taste of raw starch. Cornstarch must be fully cooked after thickening, or it leaves a raw, pasty flavor. Stirring while it cooks also prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the lemon

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

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