Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Snow Balls
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.
Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix well.
Sift the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda together, then fold into the egg mixture.
Bake and serve
Spoon a tablespoon of the batter into each cup of a muffin tin.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Once baked, roll the warm snow balls in powdered sugar.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Eggs
- Whipped to foam, they trap air that gives the snowballs their light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that sets the batter into a sturdy, tender crumb.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg foam and helps keep the crumb tender and light.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas, helping the snowballs rise.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, rolled on the warm outside, forms a sweet white coating.
The step that matters
Rolling the snowballs while warm. Powdered sugar sticks best to a warm surface, which is slightly moist from the steam inside. If they cool fully first, the coating may not adhere evenly and can look patchy.
“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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