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Dessert

Creme Douce

A milk and cream dessert skimmed and flavored with orange flower water or vanilla, sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Creme Douce

Ingredients

Directions

Scald and skim

  1. Take two pints of milk and a pint of cream. After scalding, let them stand.

  2. Skim all the cream that rises and put it on a plate.

  3. Put the pan on the fire again and repeat until all cream has been skimmed off.

Flavour and serve

  1. Add some orange‑flower water or essence of vanilla, which most persons prefer.

  2. Sift sugar over it.

  3. Place the skimmed cream on the dish you serve it in.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

200Calories
8 gProtein
13 gFat
12 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51

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. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base from which the rich cream rises and is skimmed.
Cream
Supplies the fat that rises to the surface and is skimmed off for the dish.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness to the skimmed cream when sifted over it.

The step that matters

Skim the rising cream completely each time. The rich layer forms on the surface of the scalded milk as it stands, and it is mostly fat. Leaving some behind, or stopping early, gives a thinner and less rich result.

“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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