Skip to main content
Dessert

Spanish Flummery

A sweet custard dessert made with egg yolks, almonds, milk, cream, sugar, and isinglass, chilled until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Spanish Flummery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Whisk together the egg yolks and pounded almonds in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the milk.

  3. Pour the boiled milk into the egg and almond mixture while stirring well.

  4. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring with a whisk until it thickens.

  5. Remove the mixture from heat and continue stirring to prevent lumps.

  6. Let the custard cool.

Prepare the cream and isinglass

  1. Whisk the thick cream until it becomes light and frothy.

  2. Dissolve the isinglass in the water.

  3. Strain the dissolved isinglass.

  4. Let the isinglass mixture cool slightly before adding to the custard.

Combine and set

  1. Gently fold the cooled custard into the whipped cream.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  3. Refrigerate until set, about 1 hour.

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. Cream + sugartop 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. Almond + milktop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving it richness and body.
Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and body in the custard.
Bitter almonds
Add a stronger, more intense almond aroma to the custard.
Thick cream
Whipped to add lightness and a rich, creamy texture.
Isinglass
Gelatine-like setting agent that firms the dessert so it holds its shape when chilled.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard over low heat. Egg yolks thicken gently and can curdle or form lumps if overheated, so keep the heat low and stir constantly. Removing the pan from heat and continuing to stir smooths the custard before it is folded into the cream.

Swap the almond

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

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

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

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes