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Dessert

Lemon Snow

A chilled, molded lemon dessert made from a cornstarch syrup beaten with 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. Make a syrup by boiling sugar, boiling 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, and stir until thick.

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

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Add strained lemon juice and beaten egg whites.

  6. Beat with a wire whisk until well combined.

  7. Pour into moistened molds and chill.

  8. 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

Egg whites
Beaten into the mixture to give it a light, airy, foamy texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the syrup as it cooks, giving the dessert its body and setting structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps give the dessert its smooth, tender texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavor that balances the sugar.

The step that matters

Cook until there is no taste of raw starch. Cornstarch must be fully heated to swell and gelatinize; undercooked starch leaves a raw, floury taste and a weaker set.

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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