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Dessert

How We Cook in Tennessee

Cream desserts from a Tennessee cookbook: chocolate ice cream, macaroon cream, orange cream, and plain and coffee Spanish cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 27 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and chocolate match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,497 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells buttery, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Chocolate ice cream and macaroon cream

  1. Bring the cream to a boil.

  2. Thoroughly mix the bitter chocolate in until dissolved.

  3. Add one and a half pounds of sugar.

  4. Let cool and add the yolks of six eggs, well beaten.

  5. Season with a small quantity of vanilla extract.

  6. Let the milk come to a boil.

  7. Add the yolks of two eggs, one teacup of sugar, and two tablespoons of corn starch, well creamed together.

  8. Stir briskly until it thickens.

  9. When partly cool, add the whites beaten to a froth.

  10. When cool, add one quart of cream, a little sherry wine or vanilla, and one or two dozen macaroons, rolled fine. Freeze.

Orange cream

  1. Cover the gelatine with cold water and let soak half an hour.

  2. Whip the cream.

  3. When the milk boils, dissolve the gelatine into it.

  4. Beat the eggs and sugar together and strain the milk and gelatine into them.

  5. Make the boiler clean, put the mixture in, and stir over fire two minutes.

  6. Turn out to cool.

  7. When cold, add the juice of the oranges (after straining).

  8. Place this basin in a pan of cracked ice and stir constantly until it thickens.

  9. Add the whipped cream and stir until well mixed.

Spanish cream

  1. Heat the boiled coffee, milk and gelatine in a double boiler.

  2. Add one-third cup sugar, salt, and three yolks of eggs beaten together.

  3. Stir and cook until slightly thickened.

  4. When cooled a little, add the beaten whites of eggs and one teaspoonful of vanilla.

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Coffee + chocolatetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Vanilla + chocolatetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,018 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Milk + coffeetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,201 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custards as they heat, and whites add lightness to the creams.
Gelatine
Sets the cooled cream mixtures so they hold their shape when chilled.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard base so it becomes smooth and spoonable as it heats.
Cream
Adds richness and body, and whipped cream adds airy softness to the orange cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the custards and helps balance the flavour of the chocolate and oranges.
Bitter chocolate
Provides deep chocolate flavour and colour to the ice cream base.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg custard over heat. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if they get too hot they scramble and curdle. Keep the heat moderate and stir steadily until it just thickens.

“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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