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Dessert

Spanish Cream

A custard dessert made with milk, eggs, gelatin, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Soak and heat

  1. Pour ½ quart of milk over the gelatin and let it stand for 1 hour.

  2. Add the remaining milk and bring to a boil.

Cook the custard

  1. Separate the eggs and mix the sugar with the yolks.

  2. Once the milk and gelatin have boiled, add the yolks to the mixture.

  3. Stir continuously until the cream thickens and becomes smooth.

  4. Flavor with vanilla, then remove from heat.

Fold in the whites

  1. While stirring, add the egg whites as the mixture cools.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Gelatin + vanillatop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together924 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the cream, while whites add lightness as they are folded in.
Gelatin
Sets the milk mixture so the cream holds its shape when chilled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatin dissolves into and the custard is cooked in.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Add the yolks while stirring continuously. Egg yolk proteins set gently with steady heat and constant motion. Stirring continuously spreads the yolks through the hot milk so they thicken the cream smoothly instead of scrambling.

“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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