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Dessert

An Other Way

A chilled custard dessert made with isinglass, milk, eggs, sugar, brandy, sweet cream, and sponge cake lining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

An Other Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard base

  1. Dissolve isinglass in milk over heat.

  2. Beat egg yolks and sugar until light.

  3. Add brandy to the yolk mixture.

  4. Whisk sweet cream until light.

  5. Strain into the milk and isinglass mixture.

Assemble and set

  1. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture.

  2. Line moulds with sponge cake and fill with the mixture.

  3. Chill on ice for about 4 hours.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the pudding as it chills.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and add richness and a smooth, set texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they lighten the mixture and add airy structure.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a soft, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps soften the yolks when beaten.

The step that matters

Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture. Egg whites must be whipped to stiff peaks and folded gently so the air is kept. Overbeating makes them grainy and deflating them makes the pudding dense rather than light.

“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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