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Dessert

Cream of Spinach

A custard dessert made from spinach, almonds, macaroons, cream, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream of Spinach

Why it works: Spinach and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 352 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Cream of Spinach

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. In a mortar, pound the spinach and almonds into a fine paste.

  2. Add the macaroons and sweeten with sugar to taste, then pound well.

  3. Mix in the cream and egg yolks thoroughly.

  4. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Cook

  1. Pour it into a small mold and cook it like a custard.

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.

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.

  1. Spinach + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together352 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

  4. Spinach + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Set the custard and add richness and a smooth, thick texture when cooked gently.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the custard a soft, smooth mouthfeel.
Macaroons
Add sweetness and almond aroma, with body from the ground almond paste.
Spinach
Provides the green color and vegetable flavor of the custard.

The step that matters

Cook it like a custard. Egg yolks set as they heat, so gentle cooking keeps the custard smooth and tender. Overheating can curdle the eggs and leave the texture grainy or watery.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, cream, egg):

  1. Arrowrootfits about as well
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Spinachthe original
  4. Beetrootfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, cream, 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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