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Dessert

Sponge Cream

A chilled dessert made from sweet milk, egg yolks, sugar, gelatin, and whipped egg whites, flavored with vanilla, rose, or almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Sponge Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat 2 cups of sweet milk in a double boiler until it scalds.

  2. Whisk in 4 beaten egg yolks, ½ cup sugar, and ¼ teaspoon salt.

  3. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of gelatin in a little sweet milk, then add to the mixture and boil until thickened.

Set and serve

  1. Fold in the 4 beaten egg whites and flavor with vanilla, rose, or almond extract.

  2. Pour into a mold and refrigerate for 5 to 6 hours.

  3. Serve on a dish garnished with berries and optionally with sweetened whipped cream.

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.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture and add richness to the custard.
Gelatin
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to lighten its texture and give it an airy body.
Sweet milk
Forms the base of the custard that the other ingredients thicken.

The step that matters

Boiling after adding the gelatin mixture. The egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, so the mixture should thicken gently. Gelatin needs to be fully dissolved first, or it will leave lumps and an uneven 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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