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Dessert

Orange Cream

A custard-like dessert made with orange zest, juice, gelatin, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Orange Cream

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Orange Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Whip the cream until it reduces to half its volume.

  2. Soak the gelatin in cold water.

  3. Grate the orange rind over the soaked gelatin.

  4. Strain the orange juice and mix it with the sugar.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, combine the unwhipped cream and egg yolks, stirring until it thickens.

  2. Add the soaked gelatin to the mixture and remove from heat.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 2 minutes.

  4. Stir in the orange juice and sugar mixture.

  5. Beat the mixture until the consistency is like soft custard.

Set and serve

  1. Fold in the whipped cream.

  2. Pour into molds 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.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + orangetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Heavy cream
Whipped for lightness and folded in, it gives the pudding a rich, airy body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream base as they cook, giving the pudding its custard-like structure.
Gelatine
Sets the pudding so it holds its shape when chilled in molds.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the tartness of the orange juice.
Orange juice
Adds bright citrus flavour and acidity to the creamy base.

The step that matters

Add the soaked gelatin and remove from heat. Gelatine must be fully dissolved into a warm mixture and not overheated, since boiling can weaken its setting power and leave the pudding grainy or loose.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, 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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