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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, gelatin, eggs, sugar, and optional flavoring, folded with beaten egg whites and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Spanish Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in 1½ cups of milk.

  2. In a saucepan, bring 1 quart of milk to a boil.

  3. Stir in the dissolved gelatin, egg yolks, and sugar.

  4. Cook until thickened like custard.

Assemble and chill

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and place in a bowl.

  2. Pour the custard over the beaten egg whites and mix gently.

  3. Add your desired flavoring.

  4. Pour the mixture into molds and refrigerate to cool.

Serve

  1. Serve with cream.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled and unmolded.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth texture.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiffness, they lighten the mixture and give it an airy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds creaminess.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds body to the mixture.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can make them scramble and turn grainy. Cook gently and stop once the custard coats a spoon.

“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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