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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with gelatin, milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and wine, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in a little hot water in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Boil the milk in a separate pot.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until combined.

  2. Stir the egg yolk mixture into the boiling milk, then remove from heat.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  4. Add the vanilla and wine, then pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

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. Vanilla + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

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

Gelatine
Sets the custard into a firm, sliceable body as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in, they add lightness and an airy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Stir the egg yolk mixture into the boiling milk. Adding the yolks to very hot milk can scramble them. Stirring the mixture steadily and then removing the pan from heat helps the custard thicken 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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