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Dessert

Bitter Sweet Cream

A confection made from sugar, water, acetic acid, glycerine, gelatin, egg whites, and flavoring, cooked to 242°F and rolled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Bitter Sweet Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar and water in a large pot and cook until the mixture reaches 242°F (117°C).

  2. Remove the pot from heat and stir in glycerine and dissolved gelatin.

Cool and shape

  1. Pour the mixture onto a damp slab and let it cool.

  2. Once cool, fold in the beaten egg whites and your chosen flavoring.

  3. Let the mixture set for one hour, then roll it out.

  4. Dip the rolled mixture in a bitter sweet coating.

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 + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Gelatin + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet bulk of the candy and sets firm as the syrup cools.
Glycerine
Keeps the candy moist and soft by holding onto water.
Gelatin
Adds elasticity and helps the mixture set into a stable body.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to add air and a light, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar syrup to 242°F (117°C). Temperature controls the sugar concentration. Undercooking leaves the candy too soft and sticky to set, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle once cooled.

“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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