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Dessert

Little Tarragon Creams

A poached custard made with egg whites, yolks, cream, and tarragon, served in small molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Little Tarragon Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the egg white, egg yolks, cream, white pepper, coarse sea salt, and chopped tarragon in a bowl.

  2. Beat the mixture until smooth.

  3. Butter small dariole moulds.

  4. Sprinkle the moulds with chopped tarragon and truffles.

  5. Place the cream mixture into the moulds.

Poach and serve

  1. Place the moulds in a pot of boiling water, ensuring the water reaches three-quarters up the sides of the moulds.

  2. Reduce heat.

  3. Poach for 20-30 minutes until set.

  4. Turn out onto a warm dish.

  5. Serve with cream sauce.

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 + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. White pepper + tarragontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Tarragon + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,572 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable texture as they cook.
Egg white
Adds structure to the custard as it firms when heated.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the custard.

The step that matters

Poaching the moulds at a gentle heat. Eggs turn grainy and spongy when cooked too hot. Reducing the heat and poaching gently in water that reaches partway up the moulds lets the custard set evenly and stay smooth.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, tarragon, butter, truffle. 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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