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Dessert

Snow Pudding

A sweet pudding made with cornstarch, egg whites, milk, and sugar, finished with vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Snow Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Mix cornstarch with a little water until smooth in a small bowl.

  2. Bring 1 pint of water to a boil in a saucepan.

  3. Add the cornstarch mixture to the boiling water and stir well.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  5. Steam for 15 minutes.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. Combine milk, egg yolks, sugar, and butter in a saucepan for the sauce.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, then remove from heat.

  3. Add vanilla extract to taste.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 water as its starch swells and sets when heated.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they add a light, airy, delicate structure.
Egg yolks
Enrich the sauce and thicken it as they cook with the milk.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard sauce, adding moisture and mild flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Butter
Adds fat to the sauce, giving it smoothness and a richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce constantly over medium heat. Egg yolks can scramble or curdle if they overheat or sit still in the pan. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the sauce thickens smoothly.

“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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