Skip to main content
Dessert

Russian Cream

A custard made with milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and isinglass, folded with stiff egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Russian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the isinglass and custard base

  1. Soak the isinglass in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. In a double boiler, heat the milk until scalded.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and mix in the sugar.

  4. Pour the hot milk over the egg yolks and sugar, stirring well.

  5. Return the mixture to the double boiler, drain the isinglass, and add it to the milk mixture, stirring until it thickens.

  6. Stir in the vanilla and let it cool until partially set.

Set and serve

  1. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the custard.

  2. Pour the mixture into molds rinsed with cold water and place them on ice.

  3. To serve, loosen the edges, invert onto a small platter, and gently shake to release.

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

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Milk
Forms the creamy body of the custard and carries the sweetness and dairy flavour.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like protein that sets the custard so it holds its shape when unmolded.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard when heated; whites are whipped to add lightness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the milk and eggs.

The step that matters

Stirring the isinglass into the hot custard. Heating the egg yolks too quickly or too hard can scramble them, and the custard thickens unevenly. Gentle heat in a double boiler, with constant stirring, keeps the custard smooth while the isinglass sets it.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes