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Dessert

Cbeme a Fbibe

A thickened cream mixture is set in a pan, cut into pieces, and fried until coloured, then served hot with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Frances Crawford · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cbeme a Fbibe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Mix about half a pound of flour with a pint of milk.

  2. Add eight eggs, yolks and whites beaten together.

  3. Put it on the fire and stir all the time till the cream thickens.

  4. Add a bit of salt, a little butter, and some grated lemon peel with a little orange-flower water.

  5. When it is boiled, flour your pan.

  6. Pour the cream into the pan, letting it extend all over.

Cut and fry

  1. When cold, cut it into pieces the size you wish.

  2. Fry them in fresh lard or butter.

  3. When coloured and warm, arrange them on the dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Sift sugar over them, and glaze if you like with a hot salamander.

  2. Serve hot.

  3. For change, dip each piece into the beaten yolk of an egg, and shake stale sponge or Savoy biscuit crumbs over them before frying; bread-crumbs will answer.

  4. To make these creams more delicate, use rice flour in place of common flour; potato flour is good.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

682Calories
27 gProtein
14 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Frances Crawford. 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they 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

Flour
Thickens the milk and eggs into a cream that sets firm when cooled.
Eggs
Set the cream on heating and give it a rich, firm body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour and eggs thicken into cream.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and flavour to the cream and browns the pieces when frying.

The step that matters

Stir the cream constantly while it thickens on the fire. Flour and egg proteins can scorch or lump on the hot base if left unstirred, and the starch needs even heating to thicken smoothly before it is poured to set.

“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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