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How We Cook in Tennessee

A collection of recipes from Tennessee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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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 ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate gelatine

  1. Soak half a box of Knox's Sparkling Gelatine in half a cup cold water.

  2. Boil one quart sweet milk with one cup sugar, four ounces grated chocolate, and a little salt for five minutes.

  3. Add the gelatine and boil five minutes more, stirring constantly.

  4. Flavor with vanilla and pour into mold.

  5. Serve with whipped cream.

Make the almond cream

  1. Soften half a box of Knox's Sparkling Gelatine in half a cup of milk or cream for five minutes and dissolve by standing in hot water.

  2. Pound the almonds, after blanching, with part of the sugar.

  3. Add the rest of the sugar and part of the cream.

  4. When they have stood half an hour or more, press them through a napkin.

  5. Add to this almond milk, the dissolved gelatine and the rest of the milk or cream and turn into a mold.

  6. Serve with cream.

Make the Charlotte

  1. Stir half a box of gelatine covered with water until it dissolves. Let it boil until half boils away.

  2. Strain into a custard made of three eggs, four tablespoons sugar, and one scant pint of milk. Mix with custard immediately after straining gelatine into custard.

  3. Flavor with vanilla.

  4. Sweeten your cream before whipping, and drain upon a sieve after whipping. Two pints of cream will do for this amount of Charlotte.

  5. Beat whites of six eggs very stiff. Dissolve one-quarter box of gelatine in a cup of cold water.

  6. Reserve three tablespoons of sugar and whip it with the eggs. Use one quart of cream beaten very stiff.

  7. When gelatine is nearly cold and begins to thicken, whip in the cream a little at a time. Flavor to taste with sherry. Put the gelatine.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

334Calories
15 gProtein
19 gFat
26 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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 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. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Milk + almondtop 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. Sugar + almondtop 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable structure once it is dissolved and cooled.
Eggs
Thicken the custard and add richness and structure to the Charlotte.
Cream
Adds fat and body, giving a light, rich texture when whipped.
Sugar
Sweetens the milk, cream and custard and balances the flavour.
Almonds
Provide the nutty flavour and body of the almond milk.

The step that matters

Add the gelatine to the custard while it is still warm and before it sets. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and evenly distributed; if it cools too much or is added to a cold mixture it can set in lumps. Whipped cream folded in only when the gelatine is nearly cold and beginning to thicken keeps the mixture airy and stops the cream from deflating.

Swap the almond

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

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

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