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Dessert

Ratafia Cream

A chilled cream dessert made with ratafia cakes, bitter almonds, isinglass, milk, heavy cream, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Ratafia Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in the milk.

  2. Break the ratafia cakes into fine pieces and sift through a coarse sieve.

  3. Alternatively, pound the bitter almonds with some sugar.

Make the cream

  1. In a large bowl, whisk the heavy cream until it forms a light froth.

  2. Add the ratafia cakes or almond mixture to the whipped cream.

  3. Stir in the dissolved isinglass and mix well.

  4. When the mixture begins to set, pour it into a mold.

Set and serve

  1. Let it set for about an hour, then turn it out.

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

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

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

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

  3. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  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

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the cream so it holds its shape when turned out.
Heavy cream
Whipped into a light froth, it gives the dessert its rich, airy body.
Ratafia cakes
Crumbled into the cream to add their distinctive almond-like flavour and some texture.
Bitter almonds
Pounded with sugar as an alternative source of almond flavour in place of the ratafia cakes.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture as it begins to set. Isinglass sets as the mixture cools, so if you pour too early the cream stays runny in the mold, and if you wait too long it thickens before it can fill the mold evenly.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cream. 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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