Why it works: Sugar and cream 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
Make the custard
Soak the gelatine in water until dissolved.
In a double boiler, heat the sweet milk.
Beat the sugar with the egg yolks and add to the milk.
Add the dissolved gelatine and cook in the boiling milk for 5 minutes.
Set and serve
Remove from heat and fold in the beaten egg whites.
Pour into a bar tin to mold.
Slice when cold and serve with whipped cream.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the dessert so it holds its shape when sliced.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the creamy base of the dessert.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and add richness and body.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam, they lighten the texture of the dessert.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites off the heat. Egg whites hold air only when whipped and kept gently handled. Heat can scramble the proteins, and stirring vigorously deflates the foam, leaving the dessert dense instead of light.
“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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