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Dessert

To Make a Floating Island

Floating Island is a dessert made with lemon zest, cream, Madeira wine, sugar, egg white, Naples biscuit, and myrtle sprig.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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To Make a Floating Island

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 ↓

To Make a Floating Island

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Grate the yellow rind of the lemon into the cream.

  2. Add the Madeira wine and sweeten with loaf sugar.

  3. Mill the mixture with a chocolate mill until frothy.

  4. Let the froth drain on a sieve overnight.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a deep glass dish, place the froth with the Naples biscuit in the center.

  2. Beat the egg white to a strong froth and roll the myrtle sprig in it.

  3. Stick the myrtle sprig into the Naples biscuit and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Lemon + myrtletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cream + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Sugar + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,874 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

Cream
Forms the base of the froth, providing richness and body once milled and drained.
Egg white
Whipped to a strong froth to add airy structure and a light, stable texture.
Madeira wine
Adds flavour and aroma to the cream base.
Lemon rind
Adds bright citrus aroma to the cream.

The step that matters

Let the froth drain on a sieve overnight. Draining lets excess liquid separate out, so the froth holds its shape and does not make the dish watery when served.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, madeira wine, sugar, egg, biscuit, myrtle):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Strawberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, madeira wine, sugar, egg, biscuit, myrtle. 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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