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 ↓
Italian Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the base
Put two pints of cream into two bowls.
In one bowl, mix six ounces of powdered loaf sugar, the juice of two large lemons, and two glassfuls of white wine.
Add the other pint of cream and stir the mixture very hard.
Add the gelatin
Boil two ounces of isinglass or gelatin with four small teacupfuls of water until reduced to one-half.
Stir the gelatin mixture, while still luke-warm, into the other ingredients.
Set
Put the mixture in a glass dish to congeal.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,640 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Cream
- Provides richness and a smooth, creamy body to the finished dish.
- Powdered loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Isinglass
- Gelatin-type setting agent that firms the cream as it cools.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and offsets the sweetness.
The step that matters
Stirring in the gelatin while luke-warm. Gelatin must be liquid enough to disperse evenly through the cream but not so hot that it weakens its setting power. Adding it too hot can prevent a firm set, while letting it cool too far can cause it to form lumps or threads before blending.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. 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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